A pilot study: consumer acceptability of Polish style cooked sausages containing house cricket flour

There is a growing interest on insects as food in Western countries. Currently, EU legislation limits the use of insects as food, however, new regulation coming to force in 2018 will clarify the situation. In the ScenoProt project funded by Strategic Research Council of Finnish Academy insects are considered as potential protein source for human consumption, and therefore, some food technological properties of insects are studied in the project. Scientific research has proven mealworm larvae and silkworm pupae originated protein fraction equal to meat protein in emulsion sausages. Generally, it is also of interest how unfractionated, chitin containing insect flour would affect the sensory properties of sausages. The objective of the present study was to investigate the consumer attitudes to Polish style sausages containing unfractionated house cricket (Acheta domesticus) flour. Lean and fatty meat was purchased from local supplier, and three different sets of smoked and cooked sausages were made. The basic recipe contained pork, water, house cricket flour, nitrite salt, and spices. Salt content of sausages was approx. 1.8%. In the first set 1/5, and in the second and third set approx. 1/6 of lean meat was replaced with house cricket flour. The fat content was approx. 12% in the first and 19–20% in the second and third set of sausages. The third set included ordinary Polish style sausage as a reference. Cooking loss of the sausages was acceptable, below 10%. Odor, texture and taste were evaluated by ordinary consumers (n=26) for the first, by media people (n=34) for the second, and by representatives of food industry (n=17) for the third set. Because of potential allergic reaction in shellfish sensitive people, the consumers were informed about the contents of the sausages. Consumer willingness to eat sausages again was recorded for the first and second set and free comments were collected for all the sets. The evaluation scale had five points (1=extremely negative, 5=extremely positive).Only in the first set the evaluations on odor, texture, and taste of the sausages averaged lower than 3. Even the willingness to eat sausages again was approx. 3. This may reflect the interest of the consumers towards food containing insects in general. The increased fat content in the second and third sets of sausages may be one factor responsible for increase in the valuation of the sensory parameters as Finnish consumers are used to the fat content of around 20 % in cooked sausages. In the third set the control sausages showed slightly higher acceptance for texture than the house cricket sausages. In free comments, dryness, dark colour, floury texture, and liver flavor were most often mentioned. In conclusion, consumers may accept non-fractionated house cricket flour as a sausage ingredient but its strong flavor may limit the level of inclusion or lead towards stronger, masking, spicing in the house cricket sausages

The effects of microcrystalline cellulose as a dietary component for lactating dairy cows

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) has several applications in food and pharmaceutical industries but the nutritional value for dairy cows and effects on in vivo digestion are not known. A feeding experiment was conducted using 24 dairy cows. The cows were offered MCC originating from unbleached softwood kraft pulp at 0, 10 or 100 g per kg diet dry matter (DM) to replace barley grain in the diet. The total daily DM intake was on average 25.6 kg and not significantly affected by the diet. Positive effects on rumen fermentation could not be demonstrated in a feeding situation where total mixed ration and a concentrate proportion of 0.50 on DM basis was used. Diet organic matter digestibility was not affected by MCC inclusion but fibre digestibility improved and the additional MCC fibre was virtually completely digested. The production potential of MCC was lower than that of barley grain as daily yields of energy-corrected milk, milk fat and protein, and milk protein concentration decreased when MCC replaced barley grain in the diet. Based on these results, MCC is not recommended as a dietary component for high-yielding dairy cows

Fermentation Quality and Bacterial Ecology of Grass Silage Modulated by Additive Treatments, Extent of Compaction and Soil Contamination

New technologies related to the identification of bacterial communities in fresh forage and silage may give valuable detailed information on the best practices to produce animal feeds. The objective was to evaluate how management conditions during silage making manipulate the profile of bacterial communities and fermentation quality of grass silages. Silages were prepared from mixed timothy and meadow fescue grass using two compaction levels. As an additional treatment the grass was contaminated with soil and feces prior to tight compaction. Four additive treatments with different modes of action were applied: control without additive, formic acid-based additive, homofermentative lactic acid bacteria and salt-based additive. After 93 days the silos were opened, samples were taken and routinely analyzed. DNA extraction was carried out and PCR amplification of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene V4 region was performed using universal primers. The silage pH was higher for loose than tight compaction and higher for non-contaminated than for contaminated silages. Great shift was observed in bacterial profiles from fresh material towards silage. Lactobacillus genus was barely found on the relative abundance of fresh grass but became predominant in the final silage along with Sphingomonas genus. Use of additives improved fermentation quality and modified the bacterial profiles of grass ensiled under different management conditions.Peer reviewe

Dietary forage to concentrate ratio and sunflower oil supplement alter rumen fermentation, ruminal methane emissions, and nutrient utilization in lactating cows

ISSN-numero puuttuu.201

Maidontuotannon ympäristövaikutusten rajoittaminen eläingenetiikan ja ravitsemuksen työkaluja kehittämällä

MAKERA -hankkeen loppuraportti, hankkeen dnro 2667/312/2009

Kehitysvaiheen ja säilöntäaineiden vaikutus maissisäilörehun laatuun

Non peer reviewe

Synchronization of clocks

Peer reviewedPostprin

Ruminal metabolism of soluble rapeseed meal protein in vitro

vo