Extraction of edible protein from the housefly larvae.

In this work,proteins were extracted from the dry degreased powder of the housefly larvae with low-concentration sodium hydroxide solution.The results indicated that solution-material ratio,extraction temperature,and sodium hydroxide concentration had significant effect on the yield of the extracts,while the extraction time had no evident effect on it.The optimized conditions obtained from the orthogonal experiment were solution-material ratio was 20ml/g,extraction temperature was 80℃,extraction time was 2 h,and sodium hydroxide concentration was 1%(w/v).Under the optimized conditions,yield of housefly larvae proteins was 57.53%,nitrogen content of housefly larvae protein was 11.14%.Extraction efficiency was 69.84%.The physicochemical parameters of the housefly larvae protein obtained under the optimized conditions were detected.It indicated that contents of water,ash,fat,and protein in the extract product met the demands for National Food Standards of China and the contents of heavy metals including Pb,As,and Hg were lower than the minimum levels limited by the national food standards,and no pathogens were detected.Therefore,the proteins extracted from the house fly larvae under the current optimal conditions had matched up to the current edible level of the National Standards.