**5. Conclusions**

This study demonstrated that mealworm larvae processing methods, including defatting, modified the meal and protein extract's protein profile and altered solubility and foaming capacity. Specifically, hexane-defatting of *T. molitor* meal before aqueous extraction of proteins increased the total protein content and abundance of the 86 kDa early-staged encapsulation inducing protein and hexamerin 2 of hexane-defatted protein extracts compared to the non-hexane-defatted extracts. Hexane-defatted *T. molitor* meals and protein extracts also had highly increased foaming capacity. Furthermore, *T. molitor* protein fractions exhibited the highest solubility at pH values above 7, which could facilitate their incorporation into various food systems. While further research on the effect of different processing steps (e.g., grinding, drying, protein extraction etc.) on insect protein quality and techno-functional properties is required to improve their use as a protein source in food formulations, this study provides insights on how hexane-defatted *T. molitor* protein

ingredients could be incorporated into different foods, especially as foams, meringues, cakes, and mousses.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.G., M.C., and A.D.; Methodology, A.G., M.C., and A.D.; Validation, A.G., A.M., M.C., and A.D.; Formal Analysis, A.G.; Investigation, A.G. and A.D.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, A.G. and A.D.; Writing—Review & Editing, A.G., A.M., M.C., and A.D.; Visualization, A.G. 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 Fonds de recherche du Québec—Nature et technologies (Grant # 2018-PR-208090 to Alain Doyen).

**Data Availability Statement:** Data contained within the article are available from the authors.

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

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

**Sample Availability:** Samples of the compounds are not available from the authors.
