Knowde Enhanced TDS
Identification & Functionality
- Ingredient Name
- Ingredient Origin
- Food Ingredients Functions
- Ingredients
- Fava Bean Flour
Features & Benefits
- Labeling Claims
- Food Ingredients Features
- Functional Properties of Germinated Faba Bean Flour
- The heat treatment included in our process is gentle because it is important to prevent protein denaturation and to retain its native functionality.
- In application tests, Sprau™ germinated bean flour has demonstrated excellent protein solubility, as well as good emulsification and gelling properties.
- Further on, we have highlighted examples of the end-use applications enabled by these functionalities and stated ways in which they bring the nutritional benefits to the consumer.
- Protein solubility of Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour and raw faba bean flour at different pH values.
- The solubility profile is typical for a plant protein: the highest at pH over 7, and low at pH 3-6.5.
- The fact that high protein solubility is retained by our unique germination and drying process, proves that the process is gentle.
- The protein of the ingredient stays in native, un-denatured and functional state making several end-use applications possible.
- For example, the solubility profile together with the good gelling properties make the ingredient applicable in end-uses where acid-set protein gel formation is desired, including fermented plant-based yogurt-type products.
- The emulsions formed from the ingredient have a rather large droplet size, compared to for example egg white, but the emulsions are stable well over a seven-day follow-up period.
- Emulsification properties widen the potential applications to, for example, plant-based dairy alternatives, as well as sausage, cheese, and mayonnaise analogs.
Applications & Uses
- Markets
- Applications
- Food & Nutrition Applications
- Process Enhances the Flavor Profile of the Faba Bean Flour
- One of the challenges in using pulse ingredients in food products is their characteristic beany, green flavor, as well as bitterness and astringency (Roland et al., 2017).
- For vegans and others accustomed to the beany flavor, this is usually not an issue. However, in applications for flexitarians, who are looking for meat- or dairy-like replicas of taste and texture, a neutral flavor profile of an ingredient is desirable.
- The main cause of off-flavor development in pulses is oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids (Roland et al., 2017). The first reaction in the sequence causing lipid oxidation is lipid hydrolysis by lipase, followed by oxidation of the free fatty acids by lipoxygenase, or by heat (Yang 2019).
- Oxidation of lipids by faba bean lipoxygenase may continue during storage of the ingredient and in the final food products (Lampi et al., 2020). The gentle heat treatment in our unique germination process decreases the activity of lipase and lipoxygenase, which will in turn decrease lipid oxidation of the ingredient and the final food products made from it.
- This unique treatment also modifies the flavor profile of the ingredient.
- The series of sensory evaluations by trained panelists summarizes that the ingredient has roasted, cereal-like flavor and is less bitter and astringent than untreated, regular faba bean flour.
- The sensory properties of Sprau™ germinated bean flours prepared into porridges were studied with generic descriptive analysis by a sensory panel of ten trained assessors shows that germination of faba beans already reduces the astringency, bitterness, and overripe fruit flavor of the faba bean flour, thus opening the door for a wider range of end applications.
- The uniquely designed, patent pending Sprau™ process combining germination with a gentle heat treatment improves the sensory properties of the flour even further shows how the ingredient from our process differs from germinated faba bean flour after a regular drying process.
- Our process results in an ingredient with an overall milder flavor intensity, less beany taste and a more intense cereal and roasted flavor. The neutral flavor profile makes it possible to use the ingredient in applications where beany flavor is not desirable, and to bring the health benefits of faba bean to those who prefer such neutrality.
- Based on the results shows, we have designed our current process set-up that gives the ingredient a flavor profile between the treatments 1-2 and 3-4. This provides Sprau™ germinated bean with its typical overall mild flavor without too intensive roasted and cereal notes.
- Extrusion with Germinated Faba Bean Flour
- Extrusion is a technique used to produce several convenience food products, such as puffed snacks, breakfast flakes, and meat analogs.
- In the production of puffed snacks or breakfast cereals by extrusion cooking, cereal flours are often used due to good expansion characteristics related to their ideal starch content and quality.
- In recent years, there has been an increasing interest to replace cereal flours with pulses in extruded snacks, and thus improve their nutritional value (Pasqualone et al., 2020).
- Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour also contains a significant amount of starch and is therefore well suitable for production of dry extrudates.
- Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour has been successfully incorporated in dry extrusion to form puffed snacks.
- We showed that in dry extrusion even as high as 100% addition level is possible, although even better product texture is obtained by including 15% of rice flour (see text box for details).
- High moisture extrusion cooking is a technology used for production of plant-based meat analogs with meat-like fibrous structure.
- The fibrous structure is formed as the protein unfolds in the high temperature within the extruder and aligns into fibrils in the long cooling die (Osen et al., 2014).
- The protein content in Sprau™ faba bean flour is not high enough to enable fibril formation in wet extrusion as a sole ingredient.
- However, in combination with high protein ingredients, such as pea protein isolate (PPI), Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour can be featured as a hero ingredient with up to 50-70% in a base design.
- This results in a product that has 50% of the final product protein sourced from Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour.
- The Structural properties of the wet extrudates were demonstrated by analyzing the cross-dimensional and longitudinal tensile strength of the products.
- In general, a fibrous structure makes a big difference in the tensile strength analyzed in the two different dimensions.
- The tensile strength results of the extrudates indicate that the extrudates with 50% addition of Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour and the extrudates with 100% PPI showed similar tensile strengths but the direction of the fibrils was different.
- Longitudinal fibrils were formed with the addition of Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour, whereas the extrudate from PPI exhibited more cross-dimensional fibrillation.
- These results indicate that Sprau™ germinated faba bean flour is applicable in wet extrusion, which provides the possibility for it to be used in the development of different plant-based meat analog products, such as plant-based burgers, patties, meatballs and nuggets.
Properties
- Nutritional Information
| Value | Units | Test Method / Conditions | |
| Energy Value | 334 | kcal/100g | — |
| Energy Value | 1416 | kJ/100g | — |
| Carbohydrates | 49.0 | % | — |
| Of which sugars (as sucrose) | 2.1 | % | — |
| Protein Content | 33.0 | % | — |
| Dietary Fiber | 5.8 | % | — |
| Fat Content | 1.9 | % | — |
| Of which saturated fatty acids | 0.33 | % | — |
| Salt Calculated as NaCl | 0.04 | % | — |
| Folate (vitamin B9) | 122.0 | ug/100g | — |
| Magnesium Content (Mg) | 1010.0 | mg/kg | — |
| Potassium Content (K) | 12270.0 | mg/kg | — |
| Zinc Content (Zn) | 5.4 | mg/kg | — |
| Manganese Content (Mn) | 7.3 | mg/kg | — |
| Calcium Content (Ca) | 338.0 | mg/kg | — |
| Phosphorus Content (P) | 5800.0 | mg/kg | — |
| Moisture Content | 12.6 | % | — |
Technical Details & Test Data
- Quantity and Quality Of Germinated Faba Bean Flour
- Faba bean has an excellent amino acid profile that remains unchanged after germination. The content of indispensable amino acids in germinated faba beans is presented, and compared with the amino acid recommendation by WHO.
- Based on the comparison, the amino acid score has been calculated. As for pulses in general, only the sulfur containing amino acids, more specifically methionine, is slightly lower than the optimal proportion in the human diet and therefore the ingredient reaches an amino acid score below 100.
- This minor limitation can be compensated by consuming other plant protein sources, for example cereal grains, which are higher in sulfur containing amino acids.
- We analyzed the protein digestibility of germinated and raw faba bean flour using an in vitro upper intestinal model previously described by Minekus et al., (2014), including a series of enzymatic treatments and using enzyme concentrations as described by Aura et al. (1999).
- The results suggest that the germinated samples, especially after regular drying, have a slightly higher amount of free amino nitrogen in comparison to the reference in the oral and early gastric phases.
- This was concluded to be due to protein hydrolysis that has occurred during the germination.
- However, the differences between the three faba bean samples were less significant in the duodenal phase and all three resulted in a higher degree of hydrolysis than soya protein isolate.
- Thus, the germinated faba bean has amino acid profile which is close to the optimal and, based on the in vitro data, well digested in the human gastrointestinal tract.
- Degree of Hydrolysis
- Flavor Intensity
- Sensory Evaluation
- Proteins Solubility
- Tensile Strength
