Amylolytic treatment on faba bean for producing emulsions and emulsion gels

The objective of the thesis was to investigate the effect of carbohydrates on solubility, emulsifying, gelling and water holding properties of proteins. Faba bean is a readily available pulse crop with high protein content similar to soy bean and there is a lot of potential for a novel, high protein fermented gel product to be made from a pulse crop like faba bean. This is mainly due to its remarkable nutritional properties, functional properties and low cost, the demand for faba bean protein ingredients will grow. The current study was an attempt to develop pulse protein based products – emulsion (milk-like) and emulsion gel (yogurt-like) from faba bean. It seeks to expand the field of application of faba bean protein based products. Faba bean was pretreated, dehulled and milled. The flour was made into suspensions and the starch in faba bean was subjected to amylolytic treatments (addition of alpha amylase and glucoamylase) to breakdown the starch into smaller particles. These treated suspensions were then homogenized to obtain emulsion. A protein based gel network was produced with the gelation of amylolytically treated faba bean proteins. The emulsion properties, specifically droplet size, stability and activity were tested by PAMAS Particle Counter System. Light microscopy was applied to reveal the microstructure of emulsion and emulsion gel. Emulsion gel texture properties were studied by texture analysis. The emulsions were relatively stable over a period of a month and had white ‘milk’ like appearance. The emulsion gels prepared (amylolytic treatment) had slightly higher water holding capacities than the control A (entire starch present) and control B (starch removed by filtration) emulsion gels. Texture analysis of the emulsion gels showed that more force was required by probe to penetrate the yogurt produced from amylolytically treated samples and less force was required to penetrate the yogurt produced from controls A and B. The yield of the emulsion gels were higher for the amylolytically treated samples. It can be concluded that amylolytic treatment has increased the water holding capacity and also resulted in stronger gel systems.