What do insect larvae have to do with mayonnaise? Quite a lot, if you ask senior researcher Betül Yesiltas Svensson from DTU Food, who is leading a research project aimed at improving some of the ingredients in the foods we buy on our daily shopping trips.
"Today, many of the additives that fall into the categories of emulsifiers and antioxidants are extracted from, for example, milk proteins or produced chemically. The former is hard on the climate, and the latter is not always the best for our health. That is why we have set out to find what we hope will be both a healthier and more sustainable alternative to precisely these types of additives," says the senior researcher about the project.
Peptides from larvae
The researchers are therefore hoping to find this alternative in insect larvae precisely. More specifically, in peptides – short chains of amino acids – extracted from yellow mealworm and soldier fly larvae. And how do they go about doing that?
Well, they do so by using artificial intelligence that can compare the larvae's peptides with the additives they are intended to replace. When artificial intelligence identifies promising peptides that possess the same properties as the additives, the researchers can add them to their list of peptides to be tested in the laboratory.
"The project is still in its early stages, which means we have extracted a protein powder from the larvae, examined it, and identified the peptides that have properties matching those of the additives. The next step is to investigate the various peptide alternatives in the laboratory," explains Betül Yesiltas Svensson.
Blind tasting
Once the peptides have been studied and, hopefully, some good alternatives have been identified, they must be compared with the emulsifiers and antioxidants currently available on the market.
"This is the fun part, because it involves blind tasting. We want to find alternatives that result in a finished product, such as mayonnaise, which resembles as closely as possible what we buy in the supermarket today," says the senior researcher, who expects this to happen this year.
