Formulation of new sourdough bread prototypes fortified with non-compliant chickpea and pea residues.

Purpose: Nowadays, the promotion of a circular economy is fundamental to reduce food losses and waste. In this context, the possibility of using food supply chains non-compliant residues emerges. Much interest has been directed toward legume residues, in general and, in particular, to the possibility of combining different plant-matrices to improve nutritional profile, providing high-quality products. Methods: Five different formulations of breads, with a combination of seeds and cereals, were fortified with chickpea and pea protein concentrates. Samples were analyzed and compared with their relative control recipe to determine differences in composition, actual protein quality and integrity, and protein digestibility (performed with the INFOGEST method). Results: Samples showed a clear improvement in the nutritional profile with higher values of proteins, from averagely 12.9 (control breads) to 29.6% (fortified breads) (17.7-24.7 g/100 g of dry matter respectively), and an improvement in amino acidic profile, with a better balancing of essential amino acids (lysine and sulfur amino acid contents), without affecting protein integrity. Regarding in vitro gastro-intestinal digestibility, sample C (19% chickpea proteins) showed the best results, having a comparable protein digestibility to its control bread-48.8 ± 1.1% versus 51.7 ± 2.3%, respectively. Conclusion: The results showed how the fortification with chickpea and/or pea protein concentrate improved the nutritional profile of bread. These prototypes seem to be a valid strategy to also increase the introduction of high biological value proteins. Furthermore, the not-expected lower digestibility suggested the possible presence of residual anti-nutritional factors in the protein concentrates interfering with protein digestibility. Therefore, it seems of fundamental importance to further investigate these aspects.

Eco-Friendly Edible Packaging Systems Based on Live-Lactobacillus kefiri MM5 for the Control of Listeria monocytogenes in Fresh Vegetables.

To meet consumer requirements for high quality food free of chemical additives, according to the principles of sustainability and respect for the environment, new "green" packaging solutions have been explored. The antibacterial activity of edible bioactive films and coatings, based on biomolecules from processing by-products and biomasses, added with the bacteriocin producer Lactobacillus kefiri MM5, has been determined in vegetables against L. monocytogenes NCTC 10888 (i) "in vitro" by a modified agar diffusion assay and (ii) "on food" during storage of artificially contaminated raw vegetable samples, after application of active films and coatings. Both polysaccharides-based and proteins-based films and coatings showed excellent antilisterial activity, especially at 10 and 20 days. Protein-based films displayed a strong activity against L. monocytogenes in carrots and zucchini samples (p < 0.0001). After 10 days, both polysaccharide-based and protein-based films demonstrated more enhanced activity than coatings towards the pathogen. These edible active packagings containing live probiotics can be used both to preserve the safety of fresh vegetables and to deliver a beneficial probiotic bacterial strain. The edible ingredients used for the formulation of both films and coatings are easily available, at low cost and environmental impact.

Extraction and Chemical Characterization of Functional Phenols and Proteins from Coffee (Coffea arabica) By-Products.

Not all the coffee produced goes to the roasting stage, because non-compliant green coffee beans are usually discarded by roasters and the silverskin of the coffee is usually removed and discarded. In the present work, non-compliant green coffee beans and coffee silverskins were fully characterized from a chemical point of view. In addition, enzyme-assisted extraction was applied to recover a fraction rich in proteins and polyphenols, tested for antimicrobial, antityrosinase, and antioxidant activities. Non-compliant green coffee beans showed higher amounts of polyphenols, flavanols, flavonoids, and caffeine than coffee silverskins (which were richer in tannins). The enzymatic extraction of non-compliant coffee green beans produced extracts with a good protein content and with a consistent quantity of polyphenols. The extract showed antioxidant, antityrosinase, and antimicrobial activity, thus representing a promising strategy to recover defective green coffee beans. The antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of coffee silver skins is lower than that of non-compliant coffee green beans extracts, while the antityrosinase activity is comparable.

Targeting the Nutritional Value of Proteins From Legumes By-Products Through Mild Extraction Technologies.

Legumes have been known for centuries for their good nutritional properties. Unfortunately, during processing, from 5 to 25% of this production is wasted, generating by-products that can still be a rich source of useful compounds, such as proteins, which can still be used in food and feed formulations. The choice of the extraction technique is important to preserve the nutritional value of proteins since drastic conditions of pH and/or temperature could damage them. In this work, two mild extraction techniques (direct assisted extraction-DAE and enzymatic assisted extraction-EAE) were applied for protein extraction from legume by-products obtained from agro-industrial processes. The quality of proteins was evaluated considering protein integrity [SDS-PAGE, degree of hydrolysis (DH), free amino acid content, racemization degree] and nutritional features [amino acid score (AAS), digestibility]. Direct assisted extraction is the technique that has best preserved protein integrity (1-5% DH and free amino acid content <1%), The digestibility of proteins extracted with EAE is higher (no protein bands detected in SDS-PAGE) than with the one of DAE extracts, making this technique particularly suitable for those food and feed formulation were a high digestibility of proteins is required.

State-of-the-Art Production Chains for Peas, Beans and Chickpeas-Valorization of Agro-Industrial Residues and Applications of Derived Extracts.

The world is confronted with the depletion of natural resources due to their unsustainable use and the increasing size of populations. In this context, the efficient use of by-products, residues and wastes generated from agro-industrial and food processing opens the perspective for a wide range of benefits. In particular, legume residues are produced yearly in very large amounts and may represent an interesting source of plant proteins that contribute to satisfying the steadily increasing global protein demand. Innovative biorefinery extraction cascades may also enable the recovery of further bioactive molecules and fibers from these insufficiently tapped biomass streams. This review article gives a summary of the potential for the valorization of legume residual streams resulting from agro-industrial processing and more particularly for pea, green bean and chickpea by-products/wastes. Valuable information on the annual production volumes, geographical origin and state-of-the-art technologies for the extraction of proteins, fibers and other bioactive molecules from this source of biomass, is exhaustively listed and discussed. Finally, promising applications, already using the recovered fractions from pea, bean and chickpea residues for the formulation of feed, food, cosmetic and packaging products, are listed and discussed.

On the thermal behavior of protein isolated from different legumes investigated by DSC and TGA.

BACKGROUND: Pea, lentil, faba bean, chickpea and bean proteins are potentially renewable raw materials for bioplastic production that can be obtained from agricultural waste. Plastics are usually processed under heating, and thus thermal stability is a mandatory requirement for the application. In this study, the thermal behavior of several legume protein isolates at different purity degrees was investigated. RESULTS: The thermal stability of proteins extracted from legumes was maximum for chickpeas and minimum for beans and decreased with decreasing protein purity in the range 30-88%. A similar dependence on purity was observed for the glass transition temperature. On the contrary, the denaturation temperature was found not to depend on sample purity and origin and was lower than the degradation temperature only in the case of protein samples with purity higher than 60%. CONCLUSION: Proteins from legumes are suitable to produce thermoplastic biopolymeric materials if isolated at purity higher than 60%. In fact, under this circumstance, they can be denaturized without degrading and thus are suitable for extrusion processing. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.