Potential of preparing meat analogue by functional dry and wet pea (Pisum sativum) protein isolate

The process of replacing animal proteins with plant-based proteins is still faced with the uncertain structural and processing properties of the isolated plant proteins. This study evaluated pea proteins obtained by dry (air classification combined with electromagnetic separation) and wet (isoelectric point precipitation) separation at the process-function-product level. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the purity of the isolated pea proteins obtained by dry (72.3 +/- 0.7 g/100 g) and wet (89.2 +/- 0.5 g/100 g) separation. High performance liquid chromatography, SDS gel electrophoresis and fluorescence analysis techniques showed that the dry-separated proteins maintained their native structure and presented excellent solubility and water absorption property, which lead to a porous and soft meat analogue. Although the wet separation resulted in denaturation of the protein, the essential amino acids contents were closer to the recommended level. Due to its higher purity, wet-separated proteins had better emulsification and foaming properties, and the resulting dough was more solid-like with higher hardness than dry-separated proteins. This study allowed a deeper understanding of pea proteins obtained by dry and wet separation and their potential use in the development of meat analogues.

Automated summary

The study compared pea proteins obtained by dry and wet separation methods, revealing that dry-separated proteins maintained their native structure while wet-separated proteins had higher purity but significant denaturation. Each type of protein had different functional properties, with dry-separated proteins leading to a soft texture in meat analogues and wet-separated proteins displaying better emulsification and foaming properties.