Role of chickpea flour in texturization of extruded pea protein

Abstract

A growing demand for alternative sources of texturized vegetable protein (TVP) has resulted from various factors including plant allergies, perceived health risks associated with genetically modified organisms (GMO), animal welfare beliefs, and lifestyle choices. Soy and wheat have been the primary ingredients in TVP over the past few decades, but desires for clean label ingredients (especially non-GMO and nonallergenic) have led to demand for alternative plant protein ingredients such as pea protein. To understand the capabilities of pea protein to create meat-like texture with additions of another protein source that also contributes starch, this study focused on extruding pea protein with increasing amounts of chickpea flour (CPF). Six treatments, with inclusions of CPF ranging from 0 to 50%, were processed on a twinscrew extruder to determine the optimal ratio of pea protein isolate to CPF. Bulk density was the greatest with 20% CPF (272 g/L) and resulted in the lowest water holding capacity (55.5%). Texture profile analysis (TPA) hardness, springiness, and chewiness showed optimum results for the 10 and 20% CPF (674 to 1024 g, 72.1 to 80.7%, 400 to 439, respectively). With no CPF addition, protein interactions created a strong network exhibiting extreme springiness (91.3%). Addition of CPF greater than 20% resulted in a detrimental decrease in hardness by 38 to 84% and chewiness by 73 to 92%. Phase transition analysis and specific mechanical energy data provided a greater understanding of the degree of texturization during extrusion. Inclusion of CPF between 10 and 20% led to the optimum protein to starch ratio, allowing adequate protein texturization and creating product characteristics that could potentially mimic meat.

Physicochemical and Functional Properties of Texturized Vegetable Proteins and Cooked Patty Textures: Comprehensive Characterization and Correlation Analysis

“…In this study, the wheat-gluten-based TVPs may take great advantages of this phenomenon, as wheat gluten exerted statistically lower protein content but exhibited comparable WAC to that of pea-based TVPs (in an average of 2.1 and 1.9 g/g, respectively). Apart from proteins, the higher carbohydrate contents in the current extrudate samples may also play an important role in the WAC results, since more starch granules were able to absorb more water after gelatinization [ 9 ], which might account for the similar WAC of textured soy proteins (in an average of 2.1 g/g) to that of textured pea proteins, although the former were significantly low in protein content ( Table 1 ).…”

“…Water is critical in meat products to endow the appropriate texture and juiciness, so as to ensure customer acceptability. RHC, referring to the amount of water that could be held by the intact TVP upon rehydration, is an imperative factor affecting the meat-like texture of plant-based meat analogs [ 9 ]. In the current study, the RHC values of all samples were significantly different to each other, from 1.5 to 4.2 g/g, as demonstrated in Table 4 .…”

“…In the current study, the RHC values of all samples were significantly different to each other, from 1.5 to 4.2 g/g, as demonstrated in Table 4 . Differences in RHC are dependent on protein types, interactions between protein-water molecules, and water–water molecules [ 11 , 20 ] but are more closely related to the product structure, in particular, the porosity and air cell size [ 9 , 20 ]. Here, the external appearance and internal structure of TVPs after hydration are distinguished in Figure 1 and Figure 2 .…”

“…Soy protein has the advantages of its excellent nutritional attributes and highly similar appearance to meat [ 8 ]. However, the presence of allergenic protein and genetic modifications narrows down the application of soy protein [ 9 ]. Owing to the ability to form anisotropic meat-like structure, wheat gluten is popularly utilized in TVP manufacturing [ 10 ].…”

“…Nevertheless, the potential of allergy induction and the imbalanced composition of essential amino acids limit the popularity of wheat gluten [ 10 ]. By comparison, as a thriving alternative, pea protein is superior in hypoallergenic and non-genetic modification [ 9 ]. Other plant proteins receiving increasing attention include chickpea protein, mung bean protein and peanut protein [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”