Developing Value-Added Protein Ingredients from Wastes and Byproducts of Pulses: Challenges and Opportunities

Processing to improve the sustainability of chickpea as a functional food ingredient

Chickpea is a field crop that is playing an emerging role in the provision of healthy and sustainable plant-based value-added ingredients for the food and nutraceutical industries. This article reviews the characteristics of chickpea (composition, health properties, and techno-functionality) and chickpea grain that influence their use as whole foods or ingredients in formulated food. It covers the exploitation of traditional and emerging processes for the conversion of chickpea into value-added differentiated food ingredients. The influence of processing on the composition, health-promoting properties, and techno-functionality of chickpea is discussed. Opportunities to tailor chickpea ingredients to facilitate their incorporation in traditional food applications and in the expanding plant-based meat alternative and dairy alternative markets are highlighted. The review includes an assessment of the possible uses of by-products of chickpea processing. Recommendations are provided for future research to build a sustainable industry using chickpea as a value-added ingredient. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Impact of Processing Method on AQF Functionality in Bakery Items

Aquafaba (AQF) has the unique ability to foam like egg whites and is a waste product of cooked chickpea that is not currently utilized by the food industry. Thus, the goal of this research was to concentrate the solids by reverse osmosis (cAQF) followed by drying. Dried AQF was prepared by cooking chickpea in excess water. After removal of the chickpea, the liquid AQF was subjected to reverse osmosis followed by freeze, tray, or spray drying. The resulting AQF products were incorporated into standard cake mix and sugar cookie formulas. Hardness, gumminess, and chewiness of cakes made with eggs were significantly higher compared to the cakes made with AQF. Spread factor was significantly greater for cookies made with AQF compared to eggs while hardness was significantly lower in cookies with AQF. Higher flavor and overall acceptability scores were observed in cookies made with AQF compared to cookies made with egg. However, sensory characteristics were generally not different among cakes. In general, cAQF and spray-dried AQF tended to produce cakes and cookies with the best quality and sensory characteristic. This research supports the use of RO and drying methods in producing AQF ingredients for baking applications.