The study’s objective was to characterize the effects of mealworm powder fortification on
ice cream’s properties and nutritional value. The approximate composition and the mineral and
fatty acid profiles were analyzed. Moreover, the antioxidant activity and physical properties as well
as color were studied. As expected, insect powder substitution increased the protein content from
1.48 ± 0.13% for the control to 3.08 ± 0.22% for the sample with the highest insect substitution. The ash
content increased as well. There was also a significant increase in zinc (2.5-fold), magnesium (3-fold),
iron (4-fold) and unsaturated fatty acids. The ice cream with the highest percentage of insect powder
had the slowest melting rate (0.094 ± 0.04 g/min) but the lowest overrun value (13.10 ± 0.22%)
compared with the melting rate (0.145 ± 0.02 g/min) and overrun value (32.58 ± 0.6%) of control
ice cream. Moreover, the ice cream turned darker in color. Furthermore, adding mealworm powder
caused a significant increase in antioxidant properties as evaluated by ABTS and DPPH scavenging
activity. Therefore, using mealworm powder in ice cream gave a product with better characteristics
than the control sample, thus demonstrating the possibility of producing high-quality ice cream.