Location: Small Grain and Food Crops Quality Research
Project Number: 3060-21650-002-057-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 15, 2024
End Date: Dec 31, 2025
Objective:
The overall goal of this project is to develop next-generation fermented pulse-based meat alternatives for the prevention of western diet-induced chronic diseases. This project will develop tempeh products made from dry chickpeas and dry peas and use a combinational approach of multi-omics, chemical analysis, consumer sensory evaluation and a mouse model to gain detailed fundamental knowledge about consumer acceptability, chemical & nutritional properties and protective effects against western-diet induced health risks of dry chickpeas- and peas-based tempeh products. Specific objectives are: 1) Develop chickpea tempeh (CT) and pea tempeh (PT) and establish their chemical, nutritional and sensory profiles, 2) Determine the preventive effect of CT and PT against western diet-induced health risks in mice.
Approach:
This project aims to convert dry chickpeas and dry peas to novel tempeh products with desirable nutritional and sensory attributes, and then establish the preventive effect of these tempeh products against WD-induced health risks. The successful completion of this project will provide important information that is indispensable to produce CT and PT-based meat alternatives with enhanced and optimized functionality. In Objective 1, CT and PT will be developed and their sensory, chemical, and nutritional profiles will be developed. Dry chickpeas and dry peas will be fermented by tempeh starter, Rhizopus oligosporus with different fermentation parameters. Multi-omics (peptidomics, lipidomics, metabolomics) and chemical analysis will be utilized to systematically determine the chemical and nutritional profiles of CT and PT, elucidating the effect of tempeh fermentation on enhancing the nutritional and functional traits of chickpeas and peas. Consumer acceptance test and instrumental sensory analysis will be conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of sensory profile of CT and PT. The optimal fermentation parameters for producing CT and PT will be determined based on comprehensive analysis of the chemical, nutritional and sensory profiles of the tempeh products. In Objective 2, the preventive effect of CT and PT against western diet-induced health risks in mice will be determined. The effects of CT and PT on western diet-induced health risks, such as obesity, fatty liver, metabolic syndrome, chronic low-grade colonic inflammation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis, will be systematically investigated in a well-established mouse model. These effects of CT and PT will be compared to those produced by unfermented chickpeas and peas, which will establish the role of tempeh fermentation on enhancing health benefits of chickpeas and peas.
