Gelling of Plant Based Proteins

The functional food industry, consisting of value added health beneficial food, beverage, or supplement sectors, is one of the several areas of the food industry that has experienced fast growth in recent years. Much research is being carried out in the functional foods area to understand the nature of food components such as proteins and their fractions and the way they can be modified to improve functionality in the food matrix. Functionality of proteins covers properties such as solubility, emulsion, foaming, and gelation characteristics. The gel forming ability of proteins has been considered to be of great importance in rendering structure and texture to foods. With various molecular forces driving the gelation processes it is imperative to understand how proteins from different sources interact with different forces and form gels. With concerns over the use of animal proteins, proteins from cereals, legumes, pulses, oilseeds, or vegetables are being studied for functionality in order to use them as meat-protein substitutes. The storage proteins present in each of the cereals/legumes/pulses, and so on, differ in structural make up and, thereby, constitute different properties and hence functionalities. The chemistry behind their gel forming abilities and the textural attributes they provide to the food are reviewed in this chapter with an understanding to promote the potential of these proteins as better and inexpensive functional ingredients. As a future potential, proteins/hydrolysates – particularly those obtained from industrial co-products and having gelation characteristics or those that can be modified to have better functional properties – can bring cheap sources of functional ingredients, including gelling products, into the market and industry.