Effects of Ph-shifting Process on the Improvement of Gelling Properties of Pea Protein and Their Potential Application as Binders in Meat Alternative Products

Good gelling properties of plant protein have the potential to work as suitable binders to adhere texturized vegetable protein and fat mimetics in meat analogues. As for the binding material in restructured products, heat-induced gelation and water holding capacity are of great importance to generate coherent products with desirable texture. Pea protein has attracted attentions as soy protein substitute for its comparable functionalities yet with much lower allergenicity. In our lab, we developed a strong and elastic pea protein gel with excellent water holding capacity through pH-shifting process. With the modulation of pH-shifting process, pea protein gels exhibited highly crosslinked network structure with evenly distributed pore size and fine strands, corresponding to improved mechanical strength up to 21 kPa and water holding capacity (>95%) comparable to some gels made from animal proteins. Gels elasticity of varying extent can be acquired through the control of pH-shifting process for the design of different meat analogues with desired texture. Reduced heating temperature was noticed for the development of pea protein gels with the pretreatment of pH-shifting process observed through the rheological behavior upon heating during the gel formation, which should benefit overall quality of meat alternative products when applied as binders by producing less cooking loss. These results have revealed that pH-shifting process can be utilized as a convenient approach to modify pea protein with desirable gelling properties to be applied as potential binding ingredients in meat alternative products.