Oat protein as plant-derived gelling agent: Properties and potential of modification

Effect of Neutral and Acidic Protease Processing Intervals on Optimising Nutritional Value and Enhancing Physico-Chemical Properties of Oat Drink

This study aimed to maximise the content of water-soluble protein (WSP) and β-glucan (BG) in oat drink (OD) products by optimising the duration of treatment with neutral (NP) and acidic (AP) proteases. Additionally, it investigated the correlation between changes in the OD's nutritional profile and its rheological and sensory properties. After initial treatment with α-amylase, the OD samples were divided into two groups, i.e., one treated with NP and the other with AP for 30, 60, 120, and 180 min. The samples were then analysed for their WSP and BG contents. Samples with an optimised treatment duration were evaluated for their rheological and sensory properties. The OD sample treated with AP for 60 min exhibited the highest β-glucan (0.52 g/100 mL) and WSP (1.56 g/100 mL) contents, improved storage stability, and the lowest sedimentation rate (2.13%/h), compared to the control OD sample. However, sensorially, this sample was characterised by a sticky, gluey mouthfeel and was less acceptable as a drinkable product. This study demonstrated the potential effect of protease treatment on enhancing the nutritional value and stability of OD products, although further studies are necessary to improve the sensory properties of these drinks.

Plant-Based Decellularization: A Novel Approach for Perfusion-Compatible Tissue Engineering Structures

This study explores the potential of plant-based decellularization in regenerative medicine, a pivotal development in tissue engineering focusing on scaffold development, modification, and vascularization. Plant decellularization involves removing cellular components from plant structures, offering an eco-friendly and cost-effective alternative to traditional scaffold materials. The use of plant-derived polymers is critical, presenting both benefits and challenges, notably in mechanical properties. Integration of plant vascular networks represents a significant bioengineering breakthrough, aligning with natural design principles. The paper provides an in-depth analysis of development protocols, scaffold fabrication considerations, and illustrative case studies showcasing plant-based decellularization applications. This technique is transformative, offering sustainable scaffold design solutions with readily available plant materials capable of forming perfusable structures. Ongoing research aims to refine protocols, assess long-term implications, and adapt the process for clinical use, indicating a path toward widespread adoption. Plant-based decellularization holds promise for regenerative medicine, bridging biological sciences with engineering through eco-friendly approaches. Future perspectives include protocol optimization, understanding long-term impacts, clinical scalability, addressing mechanical limitations, fostering collaboration, exploring new research areas, and enhancing education. Collectively, these efforts envision a regenerative future where nature and scientific innovation converge to create sustainable solutions, offering hope for generations to come.

Effect of atmospheric cold plasma treatment on acid gelation properties of skim milk: Rheology and textural studies

Cold plasma processing is a non-thermal food processing technique that has been shown to improve the gelling properties of plant proteins by altering their structure through oxidation and crosslinking. This study aimed to investigate the effects of cold plasma treatment on the rheological properties of skim milk under different conditions, focusing on the impact of feed gas and treatment time on skim milk's sulfhydryl content, flow properties, and acid gelling behavior. Results showed that free sulfhydryl content decreased with treatment time, with a notable reduction observed after 2 min of N2-O2 plasma treatment. Skim milk treated with N2 plasma experienced a more gradual decrease in free SH content. Cold plasma increased skim milk viscosity over time. N2-O2 plasma treatment significantly affected G'40 and G'4 storage moduli, with an increase observed after 2 min of exposure but no change beyond that time. Acid gels' greenness (a* value) decreased with increasing treatment time compared to the control. Acid gel firmness of milk treated with N2-O2 plasma for 1 min significantly increased from 1.804 N to 1.912 N, and further to 2.072 N after 2 min of treatment. However, longer exposure times led to lower firmness in gels. N2 plasma treatment also significantly impacted acid gel firmness. Syneresis in acid gels decreased from 63.4 % to 57.7 % and 58.7 % after 1 and 2 min of N2-O2 plasma treatment, respectively, but increased to about 70 % after 4 min. Acid gels made from milk treated with N2 plasma experienced considerably less syneresis. The cold plasma treatment under different conditions significantly affected the properties of skim milk, with various impacts on sulfhydryl content, flow properties, and acid gelling behavior. These findings demonstrate the potential applications of cold plasma processing in the food industry to improve product properties.

Microfluidic Analysis for the Determination of Protein Content in Different Types of Plant-Based Drinks

The widespread consumption of plant-based drinks, driven by health and dietary reasons (including cow's milk allergy, lactose intolerance, milk protein intolerance, following a vegetarian or vegan diet) necessitates automated and accurate test methods. Our study demonstrates the simultaneous determination of protein components and total protein concentrations in plant-based milk alternatives using a rapid and reproducible microchip gel electrophoretic method. As expected, the electrophoretic profiles of each plant-based drink differed. Based on our analyses and statistical evaluation, it can be determined that the protein profiles of different plant-based beverages do not differ significantly between different manufacturers or different expiry dates. The measured total protein content was compared with the nominal values, i.e., the values stated on the beverage labels. As the number of consumers of functional and specialized plant-based milk alternatives continues to rise, it is important to prioritize methods that provide qualitative and quantitative information on protein composition and other nutrients.

Nordic Crops as Alternatives to Soy-An Overview of Nutritional, Sensory, and Functional Properties

Soy (Glycine max) is used in a wide range of products and plays a major role in replacing animal-based products. Since the cultivation of soy is limited by cold climates, this review assessed the nutritional, sensory, and functional properties of three alternative cold-tolerant crops (faba bean (Vicia faba), yellow pea (Pisum sativum), and oat (Avena sativa)). Lower protein quality compared with soy and the presence of anti-nutrients are nutritional problems with all three crops, but different methods to adjust for these problems are available. Off-flavors in all pulses, including soy, and in cereals impair the sensory properties of the resulting food products, and few mitigation methods are successful. The functional properties of faba bean, pea, and oat are comparable to those of soy, which makes them usable for 3D printing, gelation, emulsification, and extrusion. Enzymatic treatment, fermentation, and fibrillation can be applied to improve the nutritional value, sensory attributes, and functional properties of all the three crops assessed, making them suitable for replacing soy in a broad range of products, although more research is needed on all attributes.

Multiscale Structural Insight into Dairy Products and Plant-Based Alternatives by Scattering and Imaging Techniques

Dairy products and plant-based alternatives have a large range of structural features from atomic to macroscopic length scales. Scattering techniques with neutrons and X-rays provide a unique view into this fascinating world of interfaces and networks provided by, e.g., proteins and lipids. Combining these scattering techniques with a microscopic view into the emulsion and gel systems with environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) assists in a thorough understanding of such systems. Different dairy products, such as milk, or plant-based alternatives, such as milk-imitating drinks, and their derived or even fermented products, including cheese and yogurt, are characterized in terms of their structure on nanometer- to micrometer-length scales. For dairy products, the identified structural features are milk fat globules, casein micelles, CCP nanoclusters, and milk fat crystals. With increasing dry matter content in dairy products, milk fat crystals are identified, whereas casein micelles are non-detectable due to the protein gel network in all types of cheese. For the more inhomogeneous plant-based alternatives, fat crystals, starch structures, and potentially protein structures are identified. These results may function as a base for improving the understanding of dairy products and plant-based alternatives, and may lead to enhanced plant-based alternatives in terms of structure and, thus, sensory aspects such as mouthfeel and texture.

Updates on Plant-Based Protein Products as an Alternative to Animal Protein: Technology, Properties, and Their Health Benefits

Plant-based protein products, represented by "plant meat", are gaining more and more popularity as an alternative to animal proteins. In the present review, we aimed to update the current status of research and industrial growth of plant-based protein products, including plant-based meat, plant-based eggs, plant-based dairy products, and plant-based protein emulsion foods. Moreover, the common processing technology of plant-based protein products and its principles, as well as the emerging strategies, are given equal importance. The knowledge gap between the use of plant proteins and animal proteins is also described, such as poor functional properties, insufficient texture, low protein biomass, allergens, and off-flavors, etc. Furthermore, the nutritional and health benefits of plant-based protein products are highlighted. Lately, researchers are committed to exploring novel plant protein resources and high-quality proteins with enhanced properties through the latest scientific and technological interventions, including physical, chemical, enzyme, fermentation, germination, and protein interaction technology.

Comparison of physicochemical properties and volatile flavor compounds of plant-based yoghurt and dairy yoghurt

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the physicochemical characteristics and volatile flavor compounds of three kinds of yoghurt made from reconstituted milk, soy drink and oat drink. The results showed that with the same fermentation ending pH of 4.5, reconstituted yoghurt had the highest titratable acidity mainly due to the highest buffering capacity and microbial counts (LAB). The textural and water holding capacity (WHC) parameters revealed that soy-based yoghurt had the highest firmness, consistency and WHC, indicating more rigid gel was formed. Meanwhile, rheological analysis showed soy-based yoghurt owned higher G' and G'' values and higher stability against external stress, demonstrating that more and stronger interactions between soy proteins were built during fermentation. The confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) image witnessed that soy-based yoghurt had the densest and finest network, while oat-based yoghurt had much coarser and looser structure, which was consistent with the lowest firmness and G' value for oat-based yoghurt. In terms of color, reconstituted yoghurt was the lightest and oat-based yoghurt showed more reddish and yellowish. The main volatile flavor compounds in all yoghurts were ketones, while aldehydes contributed more in soy and oat yoghurt. PCA plot showed that volatile flavor compounds of reconstituted yoghurt and oat-based yoghurt were relatively similar, while soy-based yoghurt was much more different with high OAVs of hexanal, 1-octen-3-one, 1-octen-3-ol and 2-octenal. This study supplied a theoretical basis and an improvement direction for the better development of healthier plant-based yoghurt similar to dairy yoghurt.

Plant-Based Innovations for the Transition to Sustainability: A Bibliometric and in-Depth Content Analysis

Plants maintain the ecological equilibrium of the earth and stabilize the ecosystem. Today, traditional commodities and new value-added markets can be served simultaneously. There is significant biosource and bioprocess innovation for biobased industrial products. Furthermore, plant-based innovation is associated with the transition to sustainability. This study performed a bibliometric and in-depth content analysis to review plant-based innovations in the research field between 1995 and 2022. A set of 313 articles was identified from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Different analytical scientometric tools (topic mapping and overlay visualization networks) were used to analyze 124 articles; the most influential countries, institutions, authors, journals and articles were identified. Through in-depth studies, based on the grounded theory approach, five leading research areas related to plant-based innovation were determined: (1) agricultural/environmental innovation, (2) plant-based food or feed innovation, (3) innovation within the medical/pharmaceutical research area, (4) technology-related innovation and (5) economic/business aspects of plant-based innovations. Future research directions include exploring less examined and new topics, such as the sustainability implications of incorporating various plant-based foods and Industry 4.0 in plant-based innovation, and linking and developing findings from different research areas.

Development of plant-based yogurt

Fermented drinks are regarded as healthy food due to their probiotic nature. Vegan consumers who choose sustainable diet and people allergic to dairy products demand alternatives for dairy products. We aimed to develop a non-dairy plant-based yogurt from peanut, oats, and coconut milk. Yogurt was formulated with addition of sugar, corn starch, pectin, and xanthan gum. Simplex-lattice mixture design was applied to optimize the composition of the yogurt and achieve the desired rheological properties, sensory attributes, and syneresis rate. Our results revealed that the formulation containing 7.13 mL of peanut milk, 10 mL of oats milk, and 7.86 mL of coconut milk showed low syneresis rate, desired viscosity and flow behavior, as well as high overall acceptability. We found that increased amounts of peanut and oats milk improved the product’s viscosity due to high protein contents. However, coconut milk enhanced the taste and flavor of the yogurt. Flow behavior depended on viscosity and stabilizers used in accordance with the power law model. Syneresis rate was influenced by the viscosity of the yogurt. The utilization of corn starch, pectin, and xanthan gum not only improved the texture but also helped achieve the desired viscosity and flow behavior. The nutrient composition, physicochemical properties, and high sensory characteristics of the yogurt based on peanut, oats, and coconut milk allow using it as a cow milk alterative in the diet of people with lactose intolerance.

Recent application of protein hydrolysates in food texture modification

The demand for clean labels has increased the importance of natural texture modifying ingredients. Proteins are unique compounds that can impart unique textural and structural changes in food. However, lack of solubility and extensive aggregability of proteins have increased the demand for enzymatically hydrolyzed proteins, to impart functional and structural modifications to food products. The review elaborates the recent application of various proteins, protein hydrolysates, and their role in texture modification. The impact of protein hydrolysates interaction with other food macromolecules, the effect of pretreatments, and dependence of various protein functionalities on textural and structural modification of food products with controlled enzymatic hydrolysis are explained in detail. Many researchers have acknowledged the positive effect of enzymatically hydrolyzed proteins on texture modification over natural protein. With enzymatic hydrolysis, various textural properties including foaming, gelling, emulsifying, water holding capacity have been effectively improved. It is evident that each protein is unique and imparts exceptional structural changes to different food products. Thus, selection of protein requires a fundamental understanding of its structure-substrate property relation. For wider applicability in the industrial sector, more studies on interactions at the molecular level, dosage, functionality changes, and sensorial attributes of protein hydrolysates in food systems are required.

GrainGenes: Tools and Content to Assist Breeders Improving Oat Quality

GrainGenes is the USDA-ARS database and Web resource for wheat, barley, oat, rye, and their relatives. As a community Web hub and database for small grains, GrainGenes strives to provide resources for researchers, students, and plant breeders to improve traits such as quality, yield, and disease resistance. Quantitative trait loci (QTL), genes, and genetic maps for quality attributes in GrainGenes represent the historical approach to mapping genes for groat percentage, test weight, protein, fat, and β-glucan content in oat (Avena spp.). Genetic maps are viewable in CMap, the comparative mapping tool that enables researchers to take advantage of highly populated consensus maps to increase the marker density around their genes-of-interest. GrainGenes hosts over 50 genome browsers and is launching an effort for community curation, including the manually curated tracks with beta-glucan QTL and significant markers found via GWAS and cloned cellulose synthase-like AsClF6 alleles.

Oat Protein Concentrates with Improved Solubility Produced by an Enzyme-Aided Ultrafiltration Extraction Method

The aim of this study was to develop an extraction method to produce highly functional oat protein concentrates. We investigated the possibility of combining enzyme-aided slightly alkaline (pH 8.0) extraction with ultrafiltration and subsequent diafiltration for concentration of the extracted oat proteins. A further aim was to study how the deamidation of oat proteins with protein-glutaminase (PG) improves the solubility of proteins as a function of the following parameters: pH (6.0–9.0), enzyme dosage (4–20 U/g protein), and incubation time (1–4 h) with response surface methodology (RSM). Furthermore, we investigated selected functional properties, such as heat-induced gelation and solubility, of the oat protein concentrates. The chosen parameters for the enzymatic deamidation pre-treatment process by PG were as follows: pH 8.0, dosage 11.0 U/g protein, and an incubation time of 4 h (1 h at native pH and 3 h at pH 8.0). Two oat protein concentrates were produced, non-deamidated and ultrafiltered, and deamidated and ultrafiltered, with protein concentrations of 45.0 and 52.4%, respectively. The solubility of both oat protein concentrates was significantly improved at neutral and slightly alkaline pH compared to the solubility of proteins extracted from the starting material. Additionally, both oat protein concentrates produced equally strong heat-induced gel-like structures at a protein concentration of 10%.