Drying technologies for edible insects and their derived ingredients

Edible insects and their ingredients are considered as a novel, sustainable and high-quality nutritional source for their potential use as food and feed. However, they are highly oxidizable and potentially unsafe. Dehydration of insects removes moisture and extends their shelf life. Moreover, it is considered as a prerequisite and/or pretreatment for some extraction technologies for ingredient production. Drying technologies (sun drying, smoke drying, roasting, freeze drying and oven drying) have been used to dry insects, both at a laboratory and industrial level. Different drying pretreatments (thermal blanching, microwave-assisted drying and pulsed electric field) have been explored to improve the final quality of the insect products, extending their shelf life and reducing total energy consumption. Therefore, this article aimed to review the current research available in edible insect drying processing technologies, addressing their effectiveness and their influence over different quality parameters such as protein/lipid extraction efficiency, sensory characteristics of the final products, microbiological safety, shelf life and their impact on bioactive compounds.