Concerns regarding sustainability have prompted the search of value in the by-products of food manufacturing. Such is the case of the cooking water (CW) of chickpeas, which has shown its potential as a vegan egg white replacement. This study aimed to characterize and compare the CW from three novel legumes (black soybeans, BSB; yellow soybeans, YSB; and small black beans, SBB) obtained from the processing of Korean soybean foods, and the widely used CW from chickpeas (CH), with regard to total polyphenol, total carbohydrate, and protein contents, and further compare their foaming and emulsifying abilities and stabilities. Compositional analysis revealed that all the studied legumes possessed higher values than CH for all parameters. Furthermore, the CW from these legumes exhibited enhanced functional properties, particularly foaming capacity and stability. Taken together, our results suggest that the CW from BSB, YSB, and SBB, sourced from the manufacturing of legume food products, has the potential of being revalorized as a plant-based functional ingredient for vegan product development.

Summary Legume cooking water (CW) is a food by‐product with the potential of becoming a plant‐based egg white replacement; however, limited research has been performed on processes to propel its industrialisation. Consequently, this study assessed the impact of concentration methods (thin‐film evaporation; cryoconcentration [CC]; and stove‐top boiling [BL]) on the composition and characteristics of spray‐dried CW powders. CW was concentrated from 6.8 to 22 °Brix. Subsequent analyses showed that the powder characteristics were an outcome of their particle size and composition. CC powders with 18.56 ± 0.85% protein and D50 = 0.14 ± 0.01 μm presented the lowest‐performing functionality. Conversely, BL powders (25.13 ± 0.50% protein and D50 = 3.70 ± 0.47 μm) displayed enhanced emulsification and foaming. Hence, the properties of CW improved with thermal concentration. These results lay the ground for selecting and optimising a concentration procedure aiming to industrialise the production of CW.

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Background Spent coffee grounds (SCG) are a promising source of natural by-products which can be used for different purposes. In this work, a possible use of oligosaccharides isolated from SCG as functional ingredients was investigated. SCGs were treated with an acid hydrolysis at high temperature (200 °C) in a closed reactor setting reaction time of 30, 60 and 90 s depending on the sample (original or defatted). A comprehensive study of the resulted water-soluble hydrolysate using a high-resolution mass spectrometry analysis was performed. Additionally, the growth of four Lactobacillus strains was tested to assess the prebiotic potential of the hydrolysate. Results Oligosaccharide chains formed by hexoses with a degree of polymerization ranging from 3 to 6 were identified and characterized. Regardless of the composition and the reaction time of hydrolysis, the bacterial activity of SCG extracts exhibited significantly higher values than the well-known versatile carbohydrate used by food industry, i.e., inulin. Conclusions The results pave the way toward the use of hydrolysate SCG as an innovative ingredient intended to fortify food formulations. The diversity in coffee oligosaccharides composition suggests their selective prebiotic activity for specific bacterial strains. Graphical Abstract