Biotechnological Potential of using Biomass of the Bombyx mori Pupae for Food Production

Abstract

A new, effective approach to obtaining protein preparations from silkworm pupae, a mass waste product of silkworm production, has been developed. It is based on the use of various strains of Lacticaseibacillus sp. and Bacillus sp. A strain was selected that forms a dense protein clot from the protein extract of silkworm pupae, enabling microbial protein precipitation under milder and more favorable conditions compared to chemical methods. Protein preparations obtained by the developed method were characterized by a higher content of essential amino acids compared to that in meat protein and a reference protein. The conducted studies demonstrate that silkworm biomass is a high-quality protein source. These results can serve as a basis for the development of new technologies and methods for producing food proteins from non-traditional raw materials.