17G-27 |
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H. DOGAN, Dept. of Food Science, Rutgers, The State Univ. of New Jersey, Center for Advanced Food Technology, 65 Dudley Rd., New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520 and Z. Hicsasmaz, Dept. of Food Science, Cornell Univ., 151 Stocking Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-7201. Starchy legumes are well accepted in the human diet worldwide. Proximate composition and amino acid profile of lentils suggest that they might become valuable food ingredients if appropriate processing technologies were developed. Characterization of lentil components is important to understand the molecular changes and component interactions that take place during food processing operations. This will also enable appreciably utilization of lentils as an ingredient in the production of manufactured foods. Our aim was to fractionate lentil flour into its components and characterize the important functional properties of starch and protein fractions. Isolation of lentil fractions was based on the solubilization of the protein fraction in various solvent systems (water, 2% NaCl, 0.1N NaOH and 80% aq. ethanol) successively. Extraction studies were conducted at different extraction pH, time, solid:solvent ratio and precipitation pH values to determine the optimum conditions. The functional properties assessed for the starch isolate were the water absorption (WAI) and water solubility indices (WSI), fat binding capacity (FBC), swelling power, paste viscosity and clarity. The protein fraction was characterized in term of its FBC, WAI and solubility. Isolated lentil starch had higher FBC (1.02 g/g) than lentil flour (0.74 g/g) due to the removal of hydrophobic proteins during isolation. High pasting temperatures observed with lentil starch indicated that leguminous starches have a higher resistance to swelling and rapture than cereal starches. Swelling pattern of lentil starch suggested the use of lentil flour in bread making due to its possible effect on staling. Due to its moderate water and fat binding capacities, lentil protein isolate was suggested to use as a fat and/or water-absorbing agent in prepared foods. Results have shown that commercial production of lentil protein and starch fractions are technically feasible. Using lentil in novel product formulations will help in increasing the added value of the crop.
Session 17G, Food Engineering: Physical, chemical and electrical properties
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