Detection of irradiated insect products: A pilot study on dried crickets (Acheta domesticus)

This work aimed to verify the possibility of identifying irradiated dried crickets using physical techniques based on stimulated luminescence, namely Photostimulated Luminescence (PSL) and Thermally Stimulated Luminescence or Thermoluminescence (TL). These techniques detect irradiation in minerals present in foods, mainly in silicates that have good luminescent properties. Insects living on the soil in open air are supposed to contain enough minerals for the analysis. However, in the case of farmed insects, such as those covered by this study, the conditions in which they are raised and the treatments to which they are subjected during production could modify their contamination and prevent the application of such methods. In this study, we investigated dried crickets (Acheta domesticus), supplied by an Italian farm, that are boiled and dried during production. Tests were performed on one non-irradiated sample and on samples irradiated at 1 and 3 kGy using the PSL and TL based methods EN 13751 and EN 1788, respectively. Both methods provided satisfactory results, which indicated that, despite treatments during production, sufficient quantities of minerals were still present on the insects for analysis.