Novel gluten-free formulations from lentil flours and nutritional yeast: Evaluation of extrusion effect on phytochemicals and non-nutritional factors

Grain nutritional and antioxidant profiling of diverse lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) genetic resources revealed genotypes with high nutritional value

The lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus ssp. Culinaris) is a self-pollinating, diploid (2n = 2X = 14) crop with a genome size of 4 Gbp. The present study was conducted to provide a database for the evaluation of lentil antioxidant capacity, nutritional quality, and biochemical attributes. For these purposes, lentil germplasm, including 100 exotic and local genotypes from different agro-climatic zones of Pakistan, was collected. Significant variation (p < 0.05) was found among the genotypes under investigation using the Tukey HSD test. Ascorbate peroxidase was highest in ALTINOPARK (2,465 Units/g s. wt.), catalase in LPP 12110 (5,595 Units/g s. wt.), superoxide dismutase in LPP 12105 (296.75 Units/g s. wt.), and peroxidase in NIAB Masoor 2002 (3,170 Units/g s. wt.). Furthermore, NLM 15016 had a maximum total antioxidant capacity of 15.763 mg/g s. wt. The maximum values of total soluble sugars (83.93 mg/g. s. wt.) and non-reducing sugars (74.79 mg/g. s. wt.) were noticed in NLM 15015. The highest reducing sugars were detected in ILL 8006 (45.68 mg/g. s. wt.) ascorbic acid in LPP 12182 (706 μg/g s. wt.), total phenolic content in NLI 17003 (54,600 μM/g s. wt.), and tannins in NLI 17057 (24,563 μM/g s. wt.). The highest chlorophyll a (236.12 μg/g s. wt.), chlorophyll b (317 μg/g s. wt.), total chlorophyll (552.58 μg/g s. wt.), and lycopene (10.881 μg/g s. wt.) were found in NLH 12097. Maximum total carotenoids were revealed in the local approved variety Markaz 2009 (17.89 μg/g s. wt.). Principal component analysis (PCA), correlation analysis (Pearson's test), and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were performed to detect the extent of variation in genotypes. In cluster analysis, all genotypes were categorized into three clusters. Cluster II genotypes showed remarkable divergence with cluster III. According to PCA, the contribution of PC-I regarding tested nutritional parameters toward variability was the highest (39.75%) and indicated positive factor loading for the tested nutritional and biochemical parameters. In conclusion, genotype X 2011S 33-34-32 can be used by the food industry in making pasta, multigrain bread, and snacking foods due to its high protein content for meat alternative seekers. Identified genotypes with high nutritional attributes can be utilized to improve quality parameters in the respective lentil breeding lines.

Effect of extrusion cooking on the chemical and nutritional properties of instant flours: a review

Satisfying the nutritional requirements of consumers has made food industries focus on the development of safe, innocuous, easy-to-prepare products with high nutritional quality through efficient processing technologies. Extrusion cooking has emerged as a prominent technology associated with the nutritional and functional attributes of food products. This review aims to establish a theoretical framework concerning the influence of extrusion parameters on the functional and nutritional properties of precooked or instant flours, both as end-products and ingredients. It highlights the pivotal role of process parameters within the extruder, including temperature, screw speed, and raw materials moisture content, among others, and elucidates their correlation with the modifications observed in the structural composition of these materials. Such modifications subsequently induce notable changes in the ultimate characteristics of the food product. Detailed insights into these transformations are provided within the subsequent sections, emphasizing their associations with critical phenomena such as nutrient availability, starch gelatinization, protein denaturation, enhanced in vitro digestibility, reduction in the content of antinutritional factors (ANFs), and the occurrence of Maillard reactions during specific processing stages. Drawing upon insights from available literature, it is concluded that these effects represent key attributes intertwined with the nutritional properties of the end-product during the production of instant flours.

Effect of extrusion process on the obtention of a flour from coffee pulp Coffea arabica variety red Caturra and its use in bakery products

The main waste in the coffee industry is the coffee pulp (CP), an interesting source of fiber and phenolic compounds. An alternative for its harnessing can be its transformation into a flour for human consumption, generating added value for a circular economy. The aim of this study was to obtain flour from CP (CPF) using extrusion and the evaluation of its incorporation into a bakery product. Extrusion treatments to get a flour were explored by a factorial design 23, considering the temperature, moisture, and extruder screw revolutions (rpm). Treatments were evaluated for their effects on the proximal composition, phytic acid, caffeine, and phenolic compounds contents of the flours, and baking characteristics such as water absorption (WAI) and water solubility index (WSI). Once the best extrusion treatment was selected, bread formulations were developed, two wheat-based and two gluten-free, which were evaluated using "Flash Profiling". Extrusion treatment 110 °C, 35% moisture, and 17.5 rpm, was selected as the best one to get a flour with good functional properties (WAI:2.94 ± 0.13, WSI:21.02 ± 3.27) and a content of phenolic compounds: 55.14 mg/g and caffeine:14.23 mg/g. Sensorially, good acceptance, up to 15% substitution by flour, was achieved. Extruded CPF could be a food ingredient, at least in bakery products, contributing in the practice of a circular economy.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-023-05797-x.

The Addition of Pinto Bean Flour and Margarine in the Development of Red Rice-Based Novel Gluten-Free Cookies to Improve the Technological, Sensory and Physicochemical Properties

This study aimed to understand how the addition of pinto bean flour (PBF) and margarine affected the technological, sensory, and physicochemical properties of red rice-based gluten-free cookies. PBF addition (25-75 g/100 g) and margarine content (13.3-19.3 g/100 g dough) were varied according to a central composite rotatable design. Cookies selection was performed by overlaid contour and principal component analysis (PCA) for technological properties and sensory evaluation, respectively. Chemical composition analyses, bioactive compounds, and microstructure were carried out in the selected formulations. In addition, other physicochemical analyses were carried out during storage time. PBF addition affected the technological properties and increased the nutritional content of proteins (up to 13%), fibers (8.28%), iron (2.13%), zinc (1.54%), and phenolic compounds (139.46 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g), but it negatively affected sensory acceptance. However, margarine's addition improved all the sensory attributes in all the trials, showing an acceptance greater than 70%. Cookies with 50 g PBF, 50 g red rice flour, and 16.3 g margarine/100 g dough showed better technological, nutritional characteristics, and physicochemical quality up to 60 days of storage. This work contributed to the incorporation of mixtures of red rice and pinto bean for developing more nutritious cookies for celiac patients or even those who wish to consume gluten-free products.

Single-Cell Proteins Obtained by Circular Economy Intended as a Feed Ingredient in Aquaculture

The constant increment in the world’s population leads to a parallel increase in the demand for food. This situation gives place the need for urgent development of alternative and sustainable resources to satisfy this nutritional requirement. Human nutrition is currently based on fisheries, which accounts for 50% of the fish production for human consumption, but also on agriculture, livestock, and aquaculture. Among them, aquaculture has been pointed out as a promising source of animal protein that can provide the population with high-quality protein food. This productive model has also gained attention due to its fast development. However, several aquaculture species require considerable amounts of fish protein to reach optimal growth rates, which represents its main drawback. Aquaculture needs to become sustainable using renewable source of nutrients with high contents of proteins to ensure properly fed animals. To achieve this goal, different approaches have been considered. In this sense, single-cell protein (SCP) products are a promising solution to replace fish protein from fishmeal. SCP flours based on microbes or algae biomass can be sustainably obtained. These microorganisms can be cultured by using residues supplied by other industries such as agriculture, food, or urban areas. Hence, the application of SCP for developing innovative fish meal offers a double solution by reducing the management of residues and by providing a sustainable source of proteins to aquaculture. However, the use of SCP as aquaculture feed also has some limitations, such as problems of digestibility, presence of toxins, or difficulty to scale-up the production process. In this work, we review the potential sources of SCP, their respective production processes, and their implementation in circular economy strategies, through the revalorization and exploitation of different residues for aquaculture feeding purposes. The data analyzed show the positive effects of SCP inclusion in diets and point to SCP meals as a sustainable feed system. However, new processes need to be exploited to improve yield. In that direction, the circular economy is a potential alternative to produce SCP at any time of the year and from various cost-free substrates, almost without a negative impact.

Gluten-free grains: Importance, processing and its effect on quality of gluten-free products

Gluten-enteropathy affects a significant number of people, making gluten a major concern in the food industry. With medical advancements, the diagnosis of allergies is becoming easier, and people who are allergic to gluten are recommended a complete gluten-free diet. Since wheat provides a major part of the energy and nutrition in the diet, its elimination affects nutrition intake of allergic population. Food scientists are working to formulate products using protein-rich gluten-free grains with quality attributes at par with gluten-containing products. Focused research has been done to provide nutrition and a variety of food to people suffering from gluten-related disorders. Efforts are being made to remove the gluten from the wheat and other gluten-containing grains, while applying different processing/treatments to enhance the properties of gluten-free grains. Hence, the present review summarizes the importance, processing, and products of different gluten-free grains. It also highlights the digestibility of gluten-free grains with clinical trials and gluten elimination strategies for gluten-containing grains.

Acceptance of New Formulations of Extruded Gluten Free Snacks Based on Pulse Flours by Spanish Millennial Consumers

Nowadays, the food industry has developed novel gluten free extruded snack type products made from pulses, which could be good candidates to promote pulse consumption as a sustainable food product, while also satisfying the consumer’s demand. Snack type products are a large part of the young people’s diets and impact health outcomes, so it is essential to offer them snacks with a better nutritional profile. In this study, 81 Spanish millennial consumers tasted “in situ” six different gluten free snacks based on pulse flour (lentil and chickpea) marketed in Spain. The aim of the present study was: (a) to evaluate the Spanish millennial consumers’ acceptance level of new pulse snack type products; (b) to evaluate the segmentation of the millennial consumers and understand the difference between the segments; (c) to evaluate the potential relationship between their nutrition food labelling and consumers’ acceptance. In general, the lentil formulations (with more protein, more fat and less fiber) obtained higher scores than those of the chickpea. In addition, a multidimensional statistical analysis, preference mapping, and a statistical analysis of agglomerative hierarchical clustering were performed. Consumers were grouped into three clusters based on their preferences, allowing a detailed study of consumer acceptance of the selected snacks. Cluster 1 like less the samples with less salt, and, on the contrary, these samples were preferred by Cluster 3. Cluster 2 is a group who like lentil snacks, regardless of their flavoring. It was observed that the consumer segments differ at least in their preference for saltiness. The findings of this study also showed that the nutritional composition of the analyzed snacks (as appears in nutrition labelling) was associated with Spanish millennial consumers’ acceptance and could provide valuable information to develop new snacks targeted at specific market niches, such as millennials. These data provide valuable insights when trying to anticipate Spanish millennial consumer acceptance of new gluten free pulse snacks.

Extrusion Cooking Effect on Carbohydrate Fraction in Novel Gluten-Free Flours Based on Chickpea and Rice

Extrusion cooking allows the development of value-added products from pulses, such as gluten-free snacks with added functional properties. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the changes induced by the extrusion process on the carbohydrate fraction (total carbohydrates, soluble sugars and oligosaccharides, dietary fiber, and arabinoxylans) of novel flour formulations based on chickpeas and rice enriched with different dietary fiber sources. Moreover, the influence of the addition of fiber-rich ingredients, such as Fibersol^® and passion fruit, on the analyzed compounds was also evaluated. Sucrose was the main soluble sugar found in analyzed formulations, and raffinose was the prevalent oligosaccharide, followed by stachyose. The content of total α-galactosides tended to be higher after extrusion cooking. As a consequence of the extrusion treatment, the content of total and soluble dietary fiber was statistically increased in most of the analyzed samples. In general, no significant changes were observed in total arabinoxylan content as a consequence of the extrusion process, while the content of water-soluble arabinoxylans was significantly increased in extruded formulations. It was observed that the content of total available carbohydrates, stachyose, and water-soluble arabinoxylans were significantly influenced by the addition of passion fruit, Fibersol^®, and both. The incorporation of these ingredients in gluten-free formulations based on chickpeas and rice allows one to obtain suitable functional formulations for the development of innovative, gluten-free, extruded snack-type products, which could be an interesting alternative for people with celiac disease.

Effect of Die Configuration on the Physico-Chemical Properties, Anti-Nutritional Compounds, and Sensory Features of Legume-Based Extruded Snacks

Legumes are not valued by all consumers, mostly due to the prolonged soaking and cooking process they require. This problem could be solved by preparing legume-based ready-to-eat snacks. In this study, the effect of two different dies (circular and star-shaped, with cross-sections of 19.6 and 35.9 mm2, respectively) on the physico-chemical properties, anti-nutritional compounds, and sensory features of extruded breakfast snacks was determined. Extruded products were obtained from 100% legume flours of red lentil, faba bean, brown pea, and common bean. The extrusion-cooking conditions were 2.5 g/s feed rate; 160 ± 1 °C die temperature; 16 ± 1 g/100 g feed moisture, and 230 rpm screw speed. Star-shaped extrudates showed a lower expansion ratio, degree of starch gelatinization, and water solubility index, as well as higher bulk density, hardness, crunchiness, and lightness (L*) values. The oligosaccharides showed non univocal variations by changing the die, whereas phytates did not vary at all. The extrudates from lentil flour (richer in fiber) were the least preferred by sensory panelists, due to their hard texture. However, the spherical extrudates were preferred over the star-shaped product. These results emphasize the possibility of improving the physico-chemical and sensory properties of legume extrudates by selecting a proper die.

Pulse-based snacks as functional foods: Processing challenges and biological potential

Despite their high nutritional value and potential health benefits, pulse intake has not increased in the last three decades. Several strategies have been implemented to increase pulse consumption, such as their incorporation in bakery products, breakfast cereals, and snacks. The inclusion of pulses in these products could be an alternative to satisfy the consumers' demand for healthy foods. However, pulse-based snacks face important challenges, including reducing antinutritional factors, achieving consumer acceptance, and consolidating the pulse-based snacks as functional foods. This review summarizes and discusses methods for producing snacks where cereals or tubers were replaced with at least 50% pulses. Also, it briefly assesses their effect on nutritional composition, antinutritional factors, sensory acceptance, and different health benefits evaluations. Extruded snacks exhibited high protein and dietary fiber and low fat content, contrary to the high fat content of deep fat-fried snacks. Meanwhile, baked snacks presented moderate concentrations of protein, dietary fiber, and lipids. Pulses must be pretreated using process combinations such as soaking, dehulling, cooking, fermentation, germination, and extrusion to reduce the antinutritional factors. Pulse-based snacks show good sensory acceptance. However, sensory evaluation should be more rigorous using additional untrained judges. Several studies have evaluated the health benefits of pulse-based snacks. More research is needed to validate scientifically the health benefits associated with their consumption. Pulse-based snacks could be an alternative to improve the nutritional composition of commercially available snacks. The use of pulses as ingredients of healthier snacks represents an important alternative for the food industry due to their low cost, sensory characteristics, high nutritional profile, and environmental benefits.

Autoclaved and Extruded Legumes as a Source of Bioactive Phytochemicals: A Review

Legumes have been consumed since ancient times all over the world due to their easy cultivation and availability as a low-cost food. Nowadays, it is well known that pulses are also a good source of bioactive phytochemicals that play an important role in the health and well-being of humans. Pulses are mainly consumed after processing to soften cotyledons and to improve their nutritive and sensorial characteristics. However, processing affects not only their nutritive constituents, but also their bioactive compounds. The final content of phytochemicals depends on the pulse type and variety, the processing method and their parameters (mainly temperature and time), the food matrix structure and the chemical nature of each phytochemical. This review focuses on the changes produced in the bioactive-compound content of pulses processed by a traditional processing method like cooking (with or without pressure) or by an industrial processing technique like extrusion, which is widely used in the food industry to develop new food products with pulse flours as ingredients. In particular, the effect of processing methods on inositol phosphates, galactosides, protease inhibitors and phenolic-compound content is highlighted in order to ascertain their content in processed pulses or pulse-based products as a source of healthy phytochemicals.

Extrusion cooking of protein-based products: potentials and challenges

Extrusion cooking is receiving increasing attention as technology applied for the production of protein-based products. Researchers in this field showed that proteins from several sources are barely consumed because of their poor functionality and lack of acceptability related to the presence of some antinutritional factors. In this regard, extrusion is becoming of key importance thanks to its ability to improve protein functional properties. Based on this remarkable advantage, several studies have been published so far providing evidence of the enhanced functional, physicochemical and sensory properties of protein-based extruded products. The objective of the present review is to give a detailed overview of the potential of extrusion for the production of protein-based products. More specifically, the work describes all the studies published so far on vegetable and animal proteins including those recently released applying the technology on insect proteins. The aspects related to the functional properties of the extrudates together with the quality changes occurring during the process are also described to highlight the potential of the technology for future applications.

Moringa oleifera L. leaf powder as ingredient in gluten-free biscuits: nutritional and physicochemical characteristics

Dried powder from Moringa oleifera L. leaves (MOLP) could be considered a promising naturally gluten-free (GF) ingredient to be added in the formulation of GF food products aiming to improve the overall nutritional characteristics. In this work, GF biscuits were formulated by replacing a commercial GF flour mix with 0, 5, 10, and 15 g/100 g of MOLP. Chemical composition, physical and textural characteristics, starch pasting properties, and the in vitro starch digestibility were considered. Adding MOLP increased the amount of protein and total dietary fibre. Even at the lowest MOLP-substitution level, the biscuits had a total dietary fibre content > 6 g/100 g dry matter. Differences in the chemical composition might account for differences in starch properties in terms of pasting behaviour and in vitro digestibility. Using MOLP decreased the in vitro starch hydrolysis index of biscuits, the lowest value (69.3) obtained at the greatest MOLP inclusion level. In addition, an increase in the resistant starch content was reported, passing from 1.1 to 2.7 g/100 g dry matter for GF biscuits containing 0 to 15 g/100 g of MOLP. Colour, spread ratio, and hardness were affected by MOLP inclusion. Biscuits containing 15 g/100 g of MOLP were characterized by the highest hardness value (41.9 N). Substitution level of 10 g/100 g should be considered the threshold level for obtaining a product with similar spread ratio than the control.

Use of Legumes in Extrusion Cooking: A Review

The traditional perception that legumes would not be suitable for extrusion cooking is now completely outdated. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have been conducted to assess the behavior of various types of legume flours in extrusion cooking, proving that legumes have excellent potential for the production of extruded ready-to-eat foods by partially or totally replacing cereals. This review identifies the optimal processing conditions for legume-based and legume-added extruded foods, which allow the improvement of the expansion ratio and give the extrudates the spongy and crisp structure expected by consumers. In particular, the effect of the individual processing parameters on the physical-chemical and nutritional properties of the final product is highlighted. The extrusion cooking process, indeed, has a positive effect on nutritional characteristics, because it induces important modifications on starch and proteins, enhancing their digestibility, and reduces the content of trypsin inhibitors, lectins, phytic acid, and tannins, typically present in legumes. Therefore, the extrusion of legume flours is a viable strategy to improve their nutritional features while reducing home preparation time, so as to increase the consumption of these sustainable crops.