**5. Conclusions**

This preliminary study demonstrated that HHP-assisted enzymatic hydrolysis by Alcalase® improved the degree of hydrolysis of mealworm protein at the very beginning of digestion, despite no modification of protein degradation profiles. Moreover, pressurization treatments that were coupled to hydrolysis by Alcalase® and pepsin further increased the in vitro digestion of specific allergenic proteins. However, the presence of protein aggregates in the initial mealworm meal powder decreased the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis and pressurization treatment. Nevertheless, this work has produced encouraging results by combining HHP and enzymatic hydrolysis for the proteolysis of allergenic mealworm proteins. Besides, experiments are currently under way in order to understand the impact of HHP parameters on the denaturation and aggregation of edible insect proteins. Further research on native mealworm proteins extracted from fresh larvae and subject to minimal heat treatment is necessary to improve the combination of HHP and enzymatic hydrolysis.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.B. and A.D.; Methodology, A.B., A.D.; Software, A.B.; Validation, A.B., S.M., Y.P., and A.D.; Formal Analysis, A.B.; Investigation, A.B. and A.D.; Resources, A.B., V.P., J.C., S.M., Y.P., and A.D.; Data Curation, A.B.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, A.B. and A.D.; Writing—Review & Editing, A.B., V.P., J.C., S.M., Y.P. and A.D.; Visualization, A.B. and A.D..; Supervision, A.D.; Project Administration, A.D.; Funding Acquisition, A.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Le Fonds de recherche du Québec—Nature et technologies (Grant # 2018-PR-208090 to Alain Doyen).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors thank Sylvie Bourassa and Victor Fourcassié for their assistance with proteomics analysis. The authors also thank Diane Gagnon and Dany Boisvert for technical support.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
