A comparative study of vegetable flours as alternative protein sources of interest for food industry

The influence of protein and starch profiles of chickpea, lentil, red lentil, white bean, quinoa, amaranth and oat flours on their techno-functional properties was studied in detail. Proteome of flours was approached through an affordable proteomic pipeline supported by liquid chromatography ion trap mass spectrometry (LC-MS) research coupled to quantitative polyacrylamide gel image analysis. Vicilins characterized pulse flours with a minimum of 45% of their total proteome and conferred their remarkable emulsifying, foaming and gelling capacities. Poor-vicilin quinoa (20% of total proteome) and vicilin-free amaranth and oat flours exhibited a good oil retention capacity that was exclusively provided by their high legumin content that comprised a minimum of 48% of their total proteome. Large starch values found in non-pulse flours (above 53% w/w versus less than 47% in pulse samples) mainly contributed to their noteworthy water holding capacity, freeze-thaw stability and high viscosity of pastes. This study can promote the creation of new insights on the use of alternative vegetable flours by industry to obtain innovative and sustainable high-protein food products.

Authors thank IATA-CSIC for funding this research through the internal project DESPEGA IATA-4. The Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación is also acknowledged by projects RTI2018-096162-R-C22 and PID2019- 107723RB-C21. Accreditation as Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa CEX2021-001189-S funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 supported execution of current research.

With funding from the Spanish government through the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2021-001189-S)

Peer reviewed