Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all'Adige, Italy.
ONFoods - Research and innovation network on food and nutrition Sustainability, Safety and Security - Working ON Foods, Parma, Italy.
Food Funct. 2024 Oct 14;15(20):10459-10471. doi: 10.1039/d4fo02767a.
Enrichment of staple foods with proteins can be a solution to tackle protein-energy malnutrition in the elderly. For instance, bread can be enriched with pea proteins that are cheap, sustainable and easily digestible. Non-conventional technologies, such as high pressure homogenization (HPH), can improve the digestibility of plant proteins. To characterize the health functionality of pea-enriched bread, a functional bread tailored to elderly consumers was developed by substituting 5% wheat flour with untreated or HPH-treated pea protein concentrate. Protein digestibility and colon fermentability were assessed by mimicking elderly gastrointestinal and gut microbiota conditions and compared with adult conditions. Bread reformulation with pea proteins affected physical and chemical properties and produced an increase in hardness, which is one of the key features for the acceptability of bread by the elderly. The highest hardness value was observed for pea protein bread, followed by HPH-treated pea protein bread and wheat bread. protein digestibility and fermentability were affected by reformulation and by physiological digestive conditions, with lower digestibility under elderly conditions compared to adult ones. The obtained results may contribute to a better understanding of food digestibility under different gastrointestinal conditions and its dependence on physiological and formulation factors, and ultimately would help to design age-tailored foods.
在主食中添加蛋白质可以解决老年人蛋白质-能量营养不良的问题。例如，可以在面包中添加豌豆蛋白，这种蛋白质价格低廉、可持续且易消化。非传统技术，如高压均质化（HPH），可以提高植物蛋白的消化率。为了研究富含豌豆的面包的健康功能，通过用未经处理或 HPH 处理的豌豆浓缩蛋白替代 5%的小麦粉，开发了一种适合老年人消费者的功能性面包。通过模拟老年人的胃肠道和肠道微生物群条件来评估蛋白质消化率和结肠发酵率，并将其与成人条件进行比较。用豌豆蛋白进行面包配方的改变会影响物理和化学性质，并导致面包硬度增加，这是老年人接受面包的关键特征之一。在豌豆蛋白面包中观察到最高的硬度值，其次是 HPH 处理的豌豆蛋白面包和小麦面包。蛋白质消化率和发酵率受配方和生理消化条件的影响，与成人条件相比，老年人条件下的消化率较低。获得的结果可能有助于更好地理解不同胃肠道条件下的食物消化率及其对生理和配方因素的依赖性，并最终有助于设计适合不同年龄段的食品。
