## 3 Results and Discussion  
### RVA Profiles  
Figure 1 shows the RVA profiles of the different samples (blend and pure flour), where the key pasting parameters are reported in Table 1. It was observed that the CKP powder did not present any noticeable feature in the pasting profile when compared with the CPF and FxF flour samples. Specifically, pure CKP powder had no significant increase or decrease in viscosity in response to heating and cooling (Figure 1A--lightest grey line). CKP powder lacks any pasting potential because of the absence of starch or long polysaccharide structures with high water binding capacity similar to starch [20]. Furthermore, there is no crystalline packing of polymer chains similar to that of starch granules to deliver a rapid increase in viscosity post-gelatinisation. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & **CPF** & **FxF** & **CKP*** \\ \hline Peak viscosity (PV) & 710 \(\pm\) 23 & 855 \(\pm\) 22 & N/A \\ Final viscosity (FV) & 189 \(\pm\) 5 & 984 \(\pm\) 33 & N/A \\ Breakdown (BKD) & 13 \(\pm\) 7 & \(-\)57 \(\pm\) 2 & N/A \\ Setback (STB) & 162 \(\pm\) 6 & 737 \(\pm\) 31 & N/A \\ Time to peak (min) & 7 & 7.1 & N/A \\ Pasting temperature (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & 65 & 50 & N/A \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Please note that CKP has no pasting potential.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Pasting parameters of chickpea (CPF) flour, flaxseed (FxF) flour, and cricket powder (CKP). An increase in PV and FV was observed as the addition of either CPF or FxF flour increased in the blends with CKP powder (Figure 1A,B). Overall, the addition of CKP powder into CPF and FxF flour blends had a negative effect on the pasting properties of these flours. For example, the addition of CKP powder resulted in a decrease in PV and BKD in both blends (see Figure 1A--CPF and Figure 1B--FxF). This observation can be explained by the high percentage of protein or chitin in the CKP blend (Figure 1). A higher percentage of protein in the mixture can restrict the swelling power of starch granules as insect powders contain a high concentration of chitin [21]. Furthermore, it has been reported that the viscosity of insect and cereal flour blends decreases as the proportion of chitin increases [21]. The addition of cricket powder with high a concentration of chitin resulted in low PV and BKD values of the blend samples analysed [21]. CKP powder also contains a high proportion of fat (17%), which can influence the formation of an amylose-lipid complex when starch and lipids are heated together, as reported by other authors [12]. Other authors also reported that an increase in viscosity might be associated with the interaction between the lipids and the lipids. Figure 1: RVA profile of binary mixtures of CPF and CFK (**A**), FxF and CKF (**B**), and FxF and CPF (**C**). A colour gradient is applied to each graph to signify a decrease in the concentration of either CPF or FxF. The range of the binary mixture is from 100:0 % _w/w_ (pure flour no addition of other flour) to 0:100 % _w/w_. CPF = chicken flour, CKF = cricket powder, and FxF = flaxseed meal flour. amylose and lipids, causing the melting of the amylose-lipid complex [12]. A recent study reported that the PV values of corn flour decreased with a decrease in starch concentration. The same authors, however, observed that when insect powder was added to the corn blends, PV decreased compared with samples in which the same amount of starch was present [1]. This reduction in PV can be explained not only by the decrease in starch but also by the proportion of lipids that prevent the absorption of moisture and increase the free energy required for gelatinisation by forming a hydrophobic layer outside the starch granule [1]. These authors reported that PV decreased with higher levels of substitution with insect powder in the blends (10% and 15% substitution) [1].