## 3 Results and Discussion  
Table 1 summarizes the results of the evaluated parameters for BSF meal and wheat flour, obtained using standard analytical methods. For wheat flour, the moisture and total fat contents were approximately 3% and 1%, respectively. Typically, wheat flour has a moisture content ranging from 10% to 14%, depending on the type and storage conditions, [26; 27] which differs from the values observed in this study. In contrast, the total fat content of wheat flour is generally low, approximately 1%, aligning with the results obtained in this study. Figure 7: Mean spectrum processing: (**a**) Wheat flour spectrum after Standard Normal Variate (SNV) transformation; (**b**) Wheat flour spectrum + SNV after applying the SGd2 filter; (**c**) BSF larvae meal spectrum after Standard Normal Variate (SNV) transformation; (**d**) BSF larvae spectrum + SNV after applying the SGd2 filter. Regarding BSF meal, higher moisture and total fat contents were observed, reaching approximately 7% and 28%, respectively. According to previous studies [15], the water content in BSF meal ranges from 8% to 15%, while the total fat content varies between 20% and 40%, depending on the larval lifespan. Compared to wheat flour, BSF meal exhibits higher percentages for both parameters. In both cases, other compounds were quantified, which may correspond to protein, fiber, high-quality amino acids, minerals, etc. [28; 29]. The BSF meal sample provided by the company is defatted, so its fat content may vary when compared to other studies in the literature where whole meal was evaluated. However, another factor that may contribute to these differences in fat content is the substrates used to feed the larvae [30]. According to [PERSON] et al. (2020) [31], the effect of diet is closely related to the nutrient composition of the insect feeding substrates. Normally, the results found in the literature indicate that BSF meal contains 50% crude protein, 35% lipids, and has a quite interesting amino acid profile [32]. However, the sample used in this study does not represent the standard BSF or company production pad, where it is only partially degreased. This process involves pressing several dehydrated larvae to remove a large percentage of fat, which justifies the lower fat percentage observed compared to other studies. The similarity of both spectra can be evaluated using several metrics, namely, the Pearson correlation coefficient and the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) [24], which computes the angle between the two SNV-transformed spectra when viewed as vectors in a multidimensional space, with the number of dimensions equal to the number of bands in the hypercube. A small value of the angle indicates that the vectors are closely aligned in that space, which in turn means that the spectra are similar. In the case of the Pearson coefficient, a value close to one indicates a strong correlation between the spectra. Considering the mean spectra of the samples, the computed value SAM is 0.664, which indicates the presence of significant differences. On the other hand, the value of 0.787 for the Pearson correlation coefficient indicates a strong correlation between the two spectra caused by the presence of common features and components (e.g., water and fat). To correlate the analytical and spectral results, the focus will be on identifying spectral signatures of fat and water content in the samples, typically associated with the presence of C-H and O-H functional groups, respectively [15]. Within the wavelength of data acquisition, it is possible to identify in the SGd2 plots (Figure 8a) absorption features associated with those groups, namely, the C-H 3 rd and O-H 2 nd overtones in the region 800-1000 nm [16], and 401 nm + 449 nm peaks, associated, respectively, to the shoulders due to the 7 th and 8 th harmonics of the O-H fundamental stretching mode [33]. These features are indicative of the presence of water and fat content.