Legume flours are great sources of protein, dietary fiber, starch, minerals, and vitamins. In recent years, the utilization of different legume flours in food systems has gained attention due to their sustainable and functional properties. This study aimed to characterize and examine the water interactions of different legume flours: navy bean, chickpea, pea, and lentil. For this purpose, in addition to the standard techniques (proximal analysis, Fourier transform infrared, protein solubility, and water solubility/absorption index), time‐domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD‐NMR) relaxometry was also performed to explain the molecular interactions in the flours. Based on the results, carbohydrate and protein content of legume flours varied from 67.44 to 72.23 (g/100 g dw) and 23.19 to 27.03 (g/100 g dw) with low fat (0.86–5.44 [g/100 g dw]) and moisture content (6.01–8.14 [g/100 g dw]). Despite the slight differences in their compositions being small, moisture, protein, and carbohydrate contents influenced flour–water interactions. Thus, flour–water mixtures were assessed, and findings showed that water solubility index (WSI) followed the order: chickpea > lentil > navy bean > pea, whereas water absorption index (WAI) followed the order: pea > navy bean > lentil > chickpea. T2 relaxation times measured by NMR and protein solubility results were also in accordance with these results. The results of this study demonstrated that legume flours that were investigated offered potential for commercial applications. Because various food applications require different flour–water interactions, a suitable flour can be selected by considering these results.

Plant-based proteins gained importance in recent years due to the increase in the awareness of healthy diet and in the consumption of plant-based foods. However, some features of plant-based proteins like the undesirable odor and flavor affect the sensorial properties of protein containing foods. Therefore, encapsulation of these proteins could be a good strategy to tackle with this problem. The objective of this study was to design microcapsules (beads) consisting of pea protein by using sodium alginate and to investigate the effect of different alginate concentrations (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0%) on the protein content, encapsulation efficiency, particle size, bead stability, and the morphology of the capsules and then add them to different fruit juices (pomegranate and melon) and examine the release behavior from the capsules. Rheological behavior of the juices including pectin were also investigated. TD-nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry analysis through T 2 relaxation times was conducted on the capsules to observe the changes in the beads. In conclusion, alginate was found to be a suitable encapsulation coating for pea protein. Beads containing 1% alginate concentration was found to be the most effective with respect to protein content and bead stability.

Allulose, also known as rare sugar, is a very reactive monosaccharide in browning reactions. In this study, the caramelisation of allulose was investigated for the first time. To study caramelisation, sugar solutions (glucose, fructose and allulose) were prepared with distilled water and buffer solutions at pH 7, 10, 12 and were freeze-dried afterwards. To let caramelisation occur, samples were incubated at 55% relative humidity (RH) and 50 °C. Results showed that samples prepared with pH 10 and pH 12 buffer solutions resulted in a higher browning rate than samples prepared with distilled water (DW) and pH 7 buffer solution. Moreover, according to HPLC and total reducing sugar content results, allulose (Allu) samples had the lowest remaining reducing sugar (RRS) amount, indicating that Allu samples depleted more in the reaction. Overall, the approach followed in this study can be considered as a novel strategy to obtain allulose-containing caramel-like products more efficiently than conventional methods.

The hydration behavior of sugars varies from each other and examining the underlying mechanism is challenging. In this study, the hydration behavior of glucose, fructose, allulose (aka rare sugar), and sucrose have been explored using different Time Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (TD-NMR) approaches (relaxation times, self-diffusion, and Magic Sandwich Echo (MSE)). For that purpose, the effects of different sugar concentrations (2.5%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) (w/v) and hydration at different times for 1 day were investigated by T2 relaxation times and self-diffusion coefficients. Crystallinity values of the solid and hydrated sugars were also determined with MSE. Change in T2 relaxation times with concentration showed that the fastest binding with water (parallel with the shortest T2 values) was observed for sucrose for all concentrations followed by glucose, fructose, and allulose. Furthermore, dependency of T2 relaxation times with hydration time showed that sucrose was the fastest in binding with water followed by glucose, fructose, and allulose. The study showed that allulose, one of the most famous rare sugars that is known to be a natural low-calorie sugar alternative, had the lowest interaction with water than the other sugars. TD-NMR was suggested as a practical, quick, and accurate technique to determine the hydration behavior of sugars.

Summary Modification of food proteins to have improved functional properties is of great importance. In this study, modification of soy protein isolate (SPI) was achieved through glycation. SPI was glycated in a spray dryer (SD) and an incubator followed by freeze drying (FD). d‐Allulose, an important rare sugar, was used in SPI glycation as the carbohydrate source, and results were compared with fructose. In addition to the sugar type, two different SPI powder: sugar ratios (1:1 and 5:1) were investigated. For the glycated samples, emulsification activity, free amino groups, protein solubility, Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, antioxidant activity experiments and time‐domain NMR relaxometry measurements for hydration were conducted. According to the results, the solubility of SPI that is limited in native form has shown a significant improvement after glycation through both FD and SD methods. Besides, glycation through the FD method was found to be more favourable due to its milder conditions than the SD method. Considering the physicochemical properties, the best combination for the highest glycation degree was found to be the samples prepared at the 1:1 ratio with d‐Allulose in the FD method. Overall, it was concluded that glycation of SPI enhanced its functional properties such as antioxidant and emulsification activities.