Crickets have been used as crude drug for treating fever and hypertension in East Asia. This study was carried out to investigate the quality characteristics such as the microbial and nutrient contents of crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) prepared with various processing conditions for use as food. These conditions included the lyophilization process (LP), hot-air process (HP, 90°C for 7 hr), roasting process (RP, 160°C for 40 min), and frying process (FP, 180°C for 30 sec). The total bacterial population of the crickets was 5~7 log CFU/g, but Coliform and E. coli were not detected. The major fatty acids in all the samples were palmitic acid (C16:0), oleic acid (C18:1), and linoleic acid (C18:2). The level of polyunsaturated fatty acids was highest (63.55 g/100 g) in the LP-processed crickets. As for the amino acid content, the glutamic acid level was highest in all the samples, and the RP and FP decreased by 12.01% and 53.88%, respectively, compared to that of the LP. The mineral contents were highest in the LP-processed crickets. Hg was detected at about 1.0 ppb in all the samples, but its level was lower than the residue tolerance level in the Korean Food Code. Such conditions should be considered to better understand the quality characteristics of crickets in food processing.
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Kim et al. (2015) studied this question.