THE REPLACEMENT OF FLOUR-BASED FEED WITH PELLETS REDUCES DUSTINESS AND IMPROVES TENEBRIO MOLITOR BREEDERS’ SAFETY

Tenebrio molitor larvae (TML) are a novel food, recently approved for human consumption in Europe. Their high content of proteins and polyunsaturated fatty acids make them a healthy source of nutrients, with potential applications in cardiovascular disease prevention. Flour-based diets are the most common feed, due to their affordability in mass-rearing conditions. Nevertheless, flour inhalation can sensitize people to asthma, increasing the risk of developing respiratory allergy among professional and domestic TML breeders. Herein, with the purpose to reduce allergens, we substituted flour-based feed with commercial pellets for young rabbit breeding. The pellets reduced the dustiness during filtration, improving safety during handling operations. Our results demonstrate that pellets can be used to breed TML without affecting their mortality or development. Interestingly, TML ameliorate growth performances increasing mean weight, total phenol content and antioxidant activity respect to the flour-based diet used as a control. Finally, fat content was comparable with the control group, but n6/n3 ratio was significantly reduced. Taken together our results strongly support the substitution of flour-based feed with commercial pellets. Key Words: Tenebrio molitor; novel foods; edible insects; allergy; pellets.