Modulation of pea proteins technological properties by HDP treatments

In recent years, consumer interest towards the consumption of healthier foods with a low environmental impact has grown, leading to an increase in the production of plant-based food products or meat-analogues by the food industry. At the same time, the use of non-thermal technologies has increased to improve the technological and functional properties of food, such as high dynamic pressures (HDP). Pea proteins stand out among the most studied plant-derived ingredients because of their high nutritional content and low production costs. The aim of this work is to modify pea proteins, which are mostly globular proteins, by high dynamic pressures to change their structure at different levels and modulate their technological and functional properties. Pea proteins (IP) were extracted and purified from frozen peas, following a protocol found in literature based on isoelectric precipitation and then subjected to HDP pre-treatment, at 600 and 1000 bars for 5 cycles. They were then characterized from the chemical-physical (SDS-PAGE, circular dichroism, thermal properties and total free sulfhydryl groups) and technological-functional (antioxidant capacity, solubility, water and oil holding capacity, interfacial tension and emulsifying capacity) point of view. Thermograms obtained from DSC analysis show a lowering of the denaturation temperature corresponding to the increase in the intensity of applied pressure. HDP pre-treatments significantly increase the solubility of proteins, especially at acidic pH. Furthermore, the pre-treatment at 1000 bars greatly increases IP’s oil holding capacity. On the contrary, interfacial properties are not positively affected by the pre-treatment, as well as the emulsifying capacity. The obtained results highlighted the possibility of using HDP as a pre-treatment to induce structural changes in pea proteins, which are reflected on the technological and functional properties with different behaviours; this would allow to exploit the native and / or modified proteins for different applications in food systems.