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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #413472
Research Project: New Sustainable Processes, Preservation Technologies, and Product Concepts for Specialty Crops and Their Co-Products

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Effect of cooking conditions on chickpea flour functionality and its protein physicochemical properties

Author
item HONG, SHAN - Kansas State University
item XIAO, RUOSHI - Kansas State University
item CHEN, GENGJUN - Kansas State University
item ZHU, YI - Pepsico
item GARAY, ANTONIO - Pepsico
item YANG, JUN - Pepsico
item Xu, Yixiang
item LI, YONGHUI - Kansas State University

Submitted to: Journal of Food Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/26/2024
Publication Date: 8/26/2024
Citation: Hong, S., Xiao, R., Chen, G., Zhu, Y., Garay, A., Yang, J., Xu, Y., Li, Y. 2024. Effect of cooking conditions on chickpea flour functionality and its protein physicochemical properties. Journal of Food Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.17315.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.17315

Interpretive Summary: Chickpea is the third most important legume and is increasingly incorporated in a variety of value-added food products. However, process and product challenges during incorporation of chickpea flour include reduced loaf volume and expansion, increased dough stickiness, and product hardness and chewiness. Furthermore, the presence of anti-nutrients, poor digestibility, and beany flavor limit its full utilization. While many different processing treatments have been applied to enhance palatability, nutritional quality, and functional properties, simple cooking is one of the most frequent. This study investigated the effects of different cooking conditions on physicochemical, structural, and functional properties of chickpea, especially its protein macromolecules, and provides potential approaches for manipulating chickpea flour functionalities to address the process and product challenges and favor product innovation.

Technical Abstract: Chickpea is an important food legume that usually undergoes various processing treatments to enhance nutritional value and functional properties. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different cooking conditions on physicochemical, structural, and functional properties of chickpea, especially its protein macromolecules. Kabuli chickpea seeds were processed by water cooking at different temperatures (63, 79, 88, and 96 'C), followed by evaluating flour solubility, water holding capacity (WHC), pasting property, as well as the total protein profile and fractionated protein distributions. Cooking treatments significantly decreased flour solubility (from 39.45 to 25.21 g/100g flour) and pasting viscosity (peak and final viscosities, from 1081 to 300.5 cP and 1323 to 532 cP, respectively), whereas increased WHC (from 0.862 to 1.144 g H2O/g flour) of chickpea flour (p ' 0.05). These behaviors were enhanced by increasing cooking temperature. Meanwhile, cooking induced significant change of chickpea proteins, modifying the albumin and globulin fractions of chickpea protein to display glutelin-like behavior. The current study provides potential approaches for manipulating chickpea flour functionalities (e.g., solubility, viscosity, water holding capacity) to address the process and product challenges and favor product innovation.