Work

Impact of the physico-chemical properties of commercial pea proteins concentrate and isolate on the quality of meat analogs

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Plant proteins extracted from soys and peas, have been identified as potential functional ingredients for plant-based meat analogs producted by high moisture extrusion cooking (HMEC). However, the extraction process (dry for concentrate and wet for isolate) can have an impact on the primary structure of the proteins, affecting their technical and functional properties. This study aims to compare the impact of two fractionation process on pea proteins (structure, fractions, flowing index) and their ability to create a network, which can mimic the fiber structure found in meat, within moisture extrusion. Pea protein concentrates (PPC) obtained by dry fractionation, and pea protein isolate (PPI) by isoelectric precipitation were characterized in terms of functional and flow properties. Results showed that PPI have a higher aggregation, lower solubility and water-holding capacity than PPC, and no thermal event was highlighted by differential scanning calorimetry, indicating proteins denaturation of PPI. Denaturation of proteins before the heating step in extruder barrel contrasts with the current model described in the literature. However, treating with HMEC, PPC is less suitable than PPI where better results in term of flow properties (respectively with flowability indexes of 27.33 and 56.17) and anisotropic structure. In that way, it appears that proteins concentration (55 % and 70 % respectively for PPC and PPI) is the most important parameter for creating a meat like texture in the conditions of the experiment.

Source: LWT

DOI: 10.1016/j.lwt.2025.118935

Authors: Gabriel Le Flem, Francine Fayolle, Aurélie Lagorce, Vanessa Jury