A descriptive sensory evaluation of edible insects in Czechia: do the species and size matter?

Figures & data

Table 1. The sensory evaluation of whole insects, cookies, and white bread containing insect meals by the ranking test.

Ranking whole insect		Ranking ground insect bread		Ranking ground insect cookies
Insects	Rank sum	Insects	Rank sum	Insects	Rank sum
Tenebrio molitor	75^a	Control	93^a	Locusta migratoria	77^a
Blaberus discoidalis	70^a	Gryllus assimilis	72^ab	Zophobas morio	74^a
Gryllus assimilis	60^a	Tenebrio molitor	70^ab	Tenebrio molitor	71^a
Locusta migratoria	58^abc	Zophobas morio	68^b	Gryllus assimilis	71^a
Blatta lateralis	38^bc	Locusta migratoria	58^bc	Blatta lateralis	56^a
Zophobas morio	35^c	Blatta lateralis	49^bc	Control	50^a
		Blaberus discoidalis	38^c	Blaberus discoidalis	49^a

Rank sum = sum of order of samples from 16 evaluators (minimum, worst sample, 16; maximum, best sample, 96 for visible form and 112 for hidden form in food products). Numbers followed by different lowercase letters are statistically different (p ≤ 0.05), according to the Friedman test.

Table 2. The sensory evaluation of whole insects by profiling method (0 = disgusting; 100 = excellent) and pair test (n = 16).

Order	Insects	Overall pleasantness of sample	Pleasantness of color	Pleasantness of smell	Pleasantness of texture	Overall pleasantness of taste	Overall intensity of taste*	Intensity of off-flavor*	Overall sample acceptance	Preference test**
Coleoptera	Tenebrio molitor	59 ± 22^abc	59 ± 20^a	55 ± 17^a	59 ± 22^a	66 ± 19^a	44 ± 21^a	15 ± 13^a	64 ± 13^a	12
	Zophobas morio	32 ± 22^bcde	41 ± 22^a	51 ± 23^a	43 ± 23^a	45 ± 22^abc	60 ± 19^a	26 ± 28^a	46 ± 26^a	4
Orthoptera	Gryllus assimilis	37 ± 21^abcde	45 ± 21^a	54 ± 17^a	52 ± 23^a	67 ± 21^a	58 ± 19^a	19 ± 19^a	65 ± 21^a	12
	Locusta migratoria	28 ± 22^cde	48 ± 23^a	48 ± 20^a	40 ± 25^a	51 ± 25^abc	65 ± 20^a	26 ± 25^a	49 ± 27^a	4
Blattodea	Blatta lateralis	55 ± 19^abcd	59 ± 19^a	55 ± 19^a	45 ± 23^a	32 ± 20^c	64 ± 18^a	38 ± 32^a	41 ± 21^a	2
	Blaberus discoidalis	22 ± 23^cde	39 ± 26^a	67 ± 22^a	46 ± 23^a	64 ± 24^a	67 ± 20^a	18 ± 23^a	67 ± 20^a	14

*0 = no off-flavor, 100 = strong off-flavor

**Number of assessors preferring this sample in the pair comparison test.

Table 3. The sensory evaluation of cookies containing insect meal by profiling method (n = 16; 0 = disgusting; 100 = excellent).

Order	Sample	Pleasantness of color	Pleasantness of smell	Pleasantness of texture	Overall pleasantness of taste	Overall intensity of taste*	Intensity of off-flavor*	Overall sample acceptance
Coleoptera	Tenebrio molitor	82 ± 17^a	74 ± 17^a	68 ± 27^a	74 ± 18^a	69 ± 22^a	20 ± 25^a	70 ± 20^a
	Zophobas morio	74 ± 19^a	77 ± 18^a	74 ± 20^a	79 ± 17^a	70 ± 24^a	12 ± 21^a	80 ± 14^a
Orthoptera	Gryllus assimilis	81 ± 19^a	76 ± 14^a	74 ± 15^a	79 ± 12^a	70 ± 22^a	19 ± 30^a	78 ± 15^a
	Locusta migratoria	81 ± 17^a	77 ± 17^a	71 ± 20^a	75 ± 22^a	67 ± 25^a	15 ± 26^a	77 ± 17^a
Blattodea	Blatta lateralis	74 ± 18^a	71 ± 17^a	61 ± 32^a	61 ± 26^a	72 ± 21^a	29 ± 27^a	59 ± 26^a
	Blaberus discoidalis	83 ± 15^a	66 ± 22^a	68 ± 23^a	57 ± 27^a	71 ± 21^a	31 ± 35^a	61 ± 26^a
Control		82 ± 16^a	74 ± 17^a	60 ± 25^a	67 ± 20^a	58 ± 25^a	22 ± 25^a	69 ± 15^a

*0 = no off-flavor, 100 = strong off-flavor

**Number of assessors preferring this sample in the pair comparison test.

Table 4. The sensory evaluation of white bread containing insect meal by profiling method (n = 16; 0 = disgusting; 100 = excellent).

Order	Sample	Pleasantness of color	Pleasantness of smell	Pleasantness of texture	Overall pleasantness of taste	Overall intensity of taste*	Intensity of off-flavor*	Overall sample acceptance
Coleoptera	Tenebrio molitor	41 ± 27 ^cd	64 ± 26^ab	77 ± 14^a	70 ± 19^ab	55 ± 17^ab	31 ± 27^bc	63 ± 23^abc
	Zophobas morio	76 ± 21^abc	70 ± 21^ab	72 ± 22^a	58 ± 29^ab	68 ± 17^ab	49 ± 32^ab	63 ± 25^abc
Orthoptera	Gryllus assimilis	45 ± 21^bcd	68 ± 18^ab	64 ± 22^a	67 ± 18^ab	55 ± 17^ab	28 ± 25^bc	72 ± 14^ab
	Locusta migratoria	60 ± 27^abcd	61 ± 24^ab	57 ± 29^a	53 ± 26^b	62 ± 16^ab	41 ± 27^abc	54 ± 20^bc
Blattodea	Blatta lateralis	72 ± 17^abc	40 ± 24^bc	73 ± 13^a	46 ± 30^b	75 ± 12^a	47 ± 32^abc	48 ± 29^c
	Blaberus discoidalis	74 ± 15^abc	30 ± 19^c	66 ± 20^a	38 ± 27^b	76 ± 15^a	72 ± 20^a	35 ± 25^c
Control		79 ± 26^ac	82 ± 20^ab	82 ± 16^a	85 ± 15^a	46 ± 26^b	12 ± 23^c	82 ± 18^ab

*0 = no off-flavor, 100 = strong off-flavor

**Number of assessors preferring this sample in the pair comparison test.

Table 5. Description of flavor (or off-flavor) of the whole edible insects.

Sample	Flavor resembles	Sample	Flavor resembles	Sample	Flavor resembles
Tenebrio molitor	Nuts	Gryllus assimilis	Butter	Blatta lateralis	Metal
	Crisps		Grilled meat		Burnt roasted almonds
	Chicken skin		Lard		Dust
	Cabbage		Crisps		Marihuana
	Fried mushrooms				Lard
					Chemical
					Sillage
Sample	Flavor resembles	Sample	Flavor resembles	Sample	Flavor resembles
Zophobas morio	Soil	Locusta migratoria	Sweet nuts	Blaberus discoidalis	Nuts
	Raw pumpkin seed		Smoked mackerel		Milk
	Nuts		Smoked ham		Chicken
	Feeding substrate		Mushrooms		Wood