School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, Freising, Germany.
J Sci Food Agric. 2022 Sep;102(12):5044-5054. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.11199. Epub 2021 Apr 9.
Infant formula is a human milk substitute for consumption during the first months of life. The protein component of such products is generally of dairy origin. Alternative sources of protein, such as those of plant origin, are of interest due to dairy allergies, intolerances, and ethical and environmental considerations. Lentils have high levels of protein (20-30%) with a good amino acid profile and functional properties. In this study, a model lentil protein-based formula (LF), in powder format, was produced and compared to two commercial plant-based infant formulae (i.e., soy; SF and rice; RF) in terms of physicochemical properties and digestibility.
The macronutrient composition was similar between all the samples; however, RF and SF had larger volume-weighted mean particle diameters (D[4,3] of 121-134 μm) than LF (31.9 μm), which was confirmed using scanning electron and confocal laser microscopy. The larger particle sizes of the commercial powders were attributed to their agglomeration during the drying process. Regarding functional properties, the LF showed higher D[4,3] values (17.8 μm) after 18 h reconstitution in water, compared with the SF and RF (5.82 and 4.55 μm, respectively), which could be partially attributed to hydrophobic protein-protein interactions. Regarding viscosity at 95 °C and physical stability, LF was more stable than RF. The digestibility analysis showed LF to have similar values (P < 0.05) to the standard SF.
These results demonstrated that, from the nutritional and physicochemical perspectives, lentil proteins represent a good alternative to other sources of plant proteins (e.g., soy and rice) in infant nutritional products. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
婴儿配方奶粉是供生命最初几个月食用的人乳替代品。此类产品的蛋白质成分通常源自乳制品。由于对乳制品过敏、不耐受以及出于道德和环境方面的考虑，植物源蛋白质等替代蛋白质源受到关注。小扁豆的蛋白质含量很高（20-30%），具有良好的氨基酸组成和功能特性。在这项研究中，以粉末形式生产了一种基于小扁豆蛋白的模型配方奶粉（LF），并将其与两种商业植物源婴儿配方奶粉（即大豆；SF 和大米；RF）在理化性质和消化率方面进行了比较。
所有样品的宏量营养素组成相似；然而，RF 和 SF 的体积加权平均粒径（D[4,3]为 121-134μm）大于 LF（31.9μm），这一点通过扫描电子显微镜和共聚焦激光显微镜得到了证实。商业粉末较大的粒径归因于其在干燥过程中的团聚。关于功能特性，LF 在水中复水 18 小时后显示出更高的 D[4,3]值（17.8μm），而 SF 和 RF 的 D[4,3]值分别为 5.82μm 和 4.55μm，这可能部分归因于疏水性蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用。就 95℃时的粘度和物理稳定性而言，LF 比 RF 更稳定。消化率分析表明 LF 与标准 SF 具有相似的值（P<0.05）。
这些结果表明，从小扁豆蛋白的营养和理化角度来看，它是婴儿营养产品中其他植物源蛋白质（如大豆和大米）的良好替代品。© 2021 作者。该研究由 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 代表化学工业协会发表在《食品科学杂志》上。
