Evaluation of an Edibleİinsect (Locusta migratoria) as a Substrate for Microbial β-fructofuranosidase Production

Abstract

Rising population in the world causes reduction on present food resources. Investigators have been looking for sustainable, nutritional and alternative food-stocks. Insects have been consumed as snacks or as food supplement in many countries, but they are still not attractive food resource worldwide. In the current study, β-fructofuranosidase enzyme production by Galactomyces geotrichum TS61 (GenBank accession: MN749818) strain was investigated using an edible insect (Locusta migratoria) as substrate. β-fructofuranosidase is a valuable enzyme in food industry. Taguchi L16 design of experiment (DOE) was employed to achieve an effective statistical optimization process, including three factors (concentration of locust powder, concentration of sucrose and initial pH) with four levels. The optimized conditions were determined as 40 g/L locust powder, 30 g/L sucrose and 6.0 pH. The analysis of variance results showed that locust powder had more effect on the enzyme production than sucrose and pH. At the end of the optimization process, approximately 4-fold higher β-fructofuranosidase production (40.91 U/mL) was obtained when compared with unoptimized experimental run (9.91 U/mL). Consequently, powdered insects may serve as an effective supplement for valuable enzyme production in food industry.