Impacting Colonic Microbiota Trajectories Through Food Structures: Can Chitin from Edible Crickets Or Amyloid-like Fibrils Act as Novel Prebiotics?

Processed foods and alternative food sources have been at the heart significant debate due to their intersections with human health and wellbeing. This work will overview the main findings of two published studies seeking to elucidate the unchartered digestive fate of chitin or proteinaceous nano-architectures that may form during food processing. Results of these studies will first demonstrate evidence from anaerobic human fecal fermentations (n=10 healthy volunteers) of powders from crickets (Acheta domestica), silkworm pupae (Bombyx mori) or isolated chitin structures. Findings suggest chitin significantly (p