Antioxidant‐Optimised Insect Meal in Broiler Diets: A Systematic Approach to Enhance Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Meat Oxidative Stability

ABSTRACT

We recommend systematically optimising the composition of insect meals in broiler feed, emphasising insects’ intrinsic antioxidant properties to eliminate lipid oxidation in meat products. The proposed method will involve high‐resolution antioxidant profiling of candidate insects (e.g. Hermetia illucens and Tenebrio molitor ) using the HPLC‐DPPH method and subsequently using these metrics to index insect diets as an antioxidant capacity index (ACI). Broiler diets containing insect meals show better performance at inclusion ratios of 5–15, with macronutrient parity maintained through iso‐nitrogen substitution for soybean meal. Additionally, the addition of proteases improves chitin digestion and enhances nutrient utilization. The insect diets with high antioxidant content are to be evaluated for broiler growth, carcass characteristics and the stability of the meat product's oxidative system, as assessed by malondialdehyde (MDA) and peroxide values (PV). These are summarised as a nutritional stability score (NSS), in which oxidation resistance is compared with growth measurements to continuously optimise feeds. The approach is also unusual compared to conventional methods because it dynamically correlates insect biochemistry with meat quality, thereby enabling a closed‐loop system for the sustainable production of broilers. It shows that insect meals optimised for antioxidant content can serve as both a growth efficiency agent and a shelf‐life extension agent, providing a dual effect for the poultry industry. Its scale is not specific and can be optimised in the future if new insect species or processing technologies emerge.