*3.6. Foaming Properties*

No foaming properties could be measured for cricket and mealworm meals and hydrolysates (control and generated after HHP), mainly due to foam destabilization during aeration. Several studies have shown that insect proteins have poor foaming properties [41,63,82,83]. Stone obtained a foaming capacity of around 82% for a commercial cricket meal but no foaming properties were observed for commercial mealworm meal [60]. According to Hall et al., enzymatic digestion enhanced the foam capacity of cricket proteins due to structural and conformational modifications [3]. Enzymatic hydrolysis generates low molecular weight peptides and exposes surface-stabilizing residues at the air–water surface which can allow rapid migration, better flexibility and rearrangement at the interface and, therefore, improve foaming properties [38,58]. In our study, the poor foaming properties of the different insect ingredients is mainly due to their lipid content. Indeed, it is well-known that just 0.5% lipid can reduce the volume of foam and cause destabilization during aeration of egg whites [84]. Consequently, efficient defatting of insect meals is crucial to generate a food ingredient with good foaming properties.
