Characterization of commercial cricket protein powder and impact of cricket protein powder replacement on wheat dough protein composition

Background and Objectives Supplementation of foods with insect flours has been shown to be promising for improving the nutritional profile of food products. The objective of this study was to characterize two commercially available cricket protein powders and investigate their impact on molecular weight distribution when incorporated into wheat dough. Findings Characterization of commercial cricket protein powders, GrioPro® (G) and Entomo Farms (E) was carried out by size exclusion high‐performance liquid chromatography (SEC‐HPLC), and sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE). The functionality of the cricket protein powders was examined by measuring water holding capacity (WHC) and protein solubility across a range of pH. To see the interactions between the cricket proteins in a food‐based system wheat dough samples containing 10% or 20% replacement levels of the cricket powders were collected at peak torque development and analyzed to SEC‐HPLC to quantify the change in soluble polymeric proteins (SPP) and insoluble polymeric proteins (IPP) and provide information on changes to protein molecular weight distribution. SDS‐PAGE analysis showed bands ranging from 40 kDa to 160 kDa for sample E while sample G had no visible bands either due to poor solubility in SDS‐PAGE sample buffer and/or the presence of very high molecular proteins that did not enter the gel. Sample E absorbed approximately 2.5 times its weight in water, which was significantly lower than G (~3.0 times its weight) while sample G was significantly lower in solubility than E across all pH levels. Conclusions Both cricket protein powders increased in WHC and solubility as the pH increased. Wheat dough samples containing sample E had lower peak areas of IPP and no significant difference in SPP peak areas compared to the control. On the other hand, doughs containing sample G had a significant increase in IPP peak areas at the 20% replacement level. Significance and Novelty This study shows how the difference in processing changed the functionality of G and E which impacted their interactions when added to a wheat dough‐based system.