Dried porous materials based on plant proteins are attracting large attention thanks to their potential use as sustainable food ingredients. Nevertheless, plant proteins present lower gelling properties than animal ones. Plant protein gelling could be improved by optimising gelation conditions by acting on protein concentration, pH, and ionic strength. This work aimed to systematically study the effect of these factors on the gelation behaviour of soy and pea protein isolates. Protein suspensions having different concentrations (10, 15, and 20% w/w), pH (3.0, 4.5, 7.0), and ionic strength (IS, 0.0, 0.6, 1.5 M) were heat-treated (95 degrees C for 15 min) and characterised for rheological properties and physical stability. Strong hydrogels having an elastic modulus (G ') higher than 10(3) Pa and able to retain more than 90% water were only obtained from suspensions containing at least 15% soy protein, far from the isoelectric point and at an IS above 0.6 M. By contrast, pea protein gelation was achieved only at a high concentration (20%), and always resulted in weak gels, which showed increasing G ' with the increase in pH and IS. Results were rationalised into a map identifying the gelation conditions to modulate the rheological properties of soy and pea protein hydrogels, for their subsequent conversion into xerogels, cryogels, and aerogels.
Optimising Soy and Pea Protein Gelation to Obtain Hydrogels Intended as Precursors of Food-Grade Dried Porous Materials
De Berardinis, Lorenzo;Plazzotta, Stella;Manzocco, Lara
2023-01-01
Abstract
Dried porous materials based on plant proteins are attracting large attention thanks to their potential use as sustainable food ingredients. Nevertheless, plant proteins present lower gelling properties than animal ones. Plant protein gelling could be improved by optimising gelation conditions by acting on protein concentration, pH, and ionic strength. This work aimed to systematically study the effect of these factors on the gelation behaviour of soy and pea protein isolates. Protein suspensions having different concentrations (10, 15, and 20% w/w), pH (3.0, 4.5, 7.0), and ionic strength (IS, 0.0, 0.6, 1.5 M) were heat-treated (95 degrees C for 15 min) and characterised for rheological properties and physical stability. Strong hydrogels having an elastic modulus (G ') higher than 10(3) Pa and able to retain more than 90% water were only obtained from suspensions containing at least 15% soy protein, far from the isoelectric point and at an IS above 0.6 M. By contrast, pea protein gelation was achieved only at a high concentration (20%), and always resulted in weak gels, which showed increasing G ' with the increase in pH and IS. Results were rationalised into a map identifying the gelation conditions to modulate the rheological properties of soy and pea protein hydrogels, for their subsequent conversion into xerogels, cryogels, and aerogels.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
gels-2132584 (rev1).pdf
accesso aperto
Tipologia:
Documento in Pre-print
Licenza:
Creative commons
Dimensione
587.47 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
587.47 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.