Functional and physical properties of commercial pulse proteins compared to soy derived protein

In this study, the techno-functional and physical attributes of various commercially available pulse protein isolates were compared with those of soy protein isolate to evaluate their potential application as replacer for soy proteins in liquid and solid food formulations such as meat and dairy analogs. The water holding capacity, oil holding capacity, gelation properties, emulsifying properties, and color of faba bean (FPI), pea (PPI), lentil (LPI), and soy (SPI) protein isolates were therefore measured. SPI had a significantly higher water holding capacity (7.6 g/g) than the pulse protein isolates (2.2–5.1 g/g), but similar oil holding capacities were identified for SPI, FPI, and LPI. Especially LPI was more effective in droplet size reduction already at low concentrations (0.1–0.2%) compared to all other tested proteins, whereas FPI showed similar droplet size reduction efficiencies than SPI at higher concentrations (2–5%). Nevertheless, all of the plant proteins were capable of forming relatively small oil droplets (D32 = 1–3 µm) at a protein-to-oil ratio of 1:10. Finally, FPI exhibited similar minimum gelling concentrations to SPI, and especially LPI had a low coloring potential.