Patent ID: 11889844
Assignee: GEA FOOD SOLUTIONS BAKEL B.V.
Field: Food chemistry (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. Method to treat insects to produce human food and/or an animal feed, the insects comprising a chitinous exoskeleton, wherein the method comprises:
reducing a core temperature of the insects to or below −10° C. in an apparatus using a cooling medium until an autolysis of the insects is reduced or stopped, wherein the reducing step takes place between 0.5 seconds and 45 minutes,
wherein after the reducing step, the method includes further treatment steps including mixing, grinding, and forming, where during the further treatment steps: i) a protein content of the insects is not reduced and ii) a color of the insects remains unchanged,
wherein the insects are frozen after the reducing step, the method includes a separation step in which the insects are separated from the cooling medium and wherein the separation occurs at a higher atmospheric pressure than ambient pressure, and
wherein the apparatus comprises a sensor and the method further comprises: determining the core temperature of the insects with the sensor and then based on the determined core temperature of the insects, the method comprises: generating a signal to control i) a contact time of the insects with the cooling medium and ii) a temperature of the cooling medium.