Cricket flour integration in biscuits: a study on formulation and consumer acceptance

Crickets have recently been approved by the European Food Safety Authority as suitable for human consumption, providing an essential opportunity to exploit this sustainable food source commercially. In this study, the cricket powder was baked into a biscuit matrix to maximise its acceptability to Western consumers by incorporation into a familiar and affordable snack food. First, the formula was optimized through a simplex centroid design, followed by a sensory approach based on the Ideal Profile Method (IPM). Secondly, the optimized biscuit was evaluated by 164 consumers randomly allocated in different experimental conditions (blind-expected-informed). Moreover, consumers were also asked to fill in a questionnaire containing demographic information, the Food Neophobia Scale (FNS), and the attitudes towards insect-based food. In particular, the first condition was performed with a control biscuit containing no cricket flour. In the second condition, consumers tasted the biscuit containing cricket flour. In the third condition, the same cricket-fortified biscuit was evaluated, but an additional educational text was distributed among the consumers. A fortified biscuit with 10% cricket flour was successfully identified as the optimal formulation containing cricket flour. The biscuit received an overall hedonic liking of 6.55 (like slightly) on the 9-point hedonic scale. However, food neophobia significantly affected the overall insect-friendliness and hedonic liking of insect-fortified food. The educational message did not improve the overall sensory hedonic responses to the cricket-fortified biscuit.