Pulse crops have received growing attention from the agri‐food sector because they can provide advantageous health benefits and offer a promising source of starch and protein. Pea, lentil, and faba bean are the three leading pulse crops utilized for extracting protein concentrate/isolate in food industry, which simultaneously generates a rising volume of pulse starch as a co‐product. Pulse starch can be fractionated from seeds using dry and wet methods. Compared with most commercial starches, pea, lentil, and faba bean starches have relatively high amylose contents, longer amylopectin branch chains, and characteristic C‐type polymorphic arrangement in the granules. The described molecular and granular structures of the pulse starches impart unique functional attributes, including high final viscosity during pasting, strong gelling property, and relatively low digestibility in a granular form. Starch isolated from wrinkled pea—a high‐amylose mutant of this pulse crop—possesses an even higher amylose content and longer branch chains of amylopectin than smooth pea, lentil, and faba bean starches, which make the physicochemical properties and digestibility of the former distinctively different from those of common pulse starches. The special functional properties of pulse starches promote their applications in food, feed, bioplastic and other industrial products, which can be further expanded by modifying them through chemical, physical and/or enzymatic approaches. Future research directions to increase the fractionation efficiency, improve the physicochemical properties, and enhance the industrial utilization of pulse starches have also been proposed. The comprehensive information covered in this review will be beneficial for the pulse industry to develop effective strategies to generate value from pulse starch.

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Grain-based carbohydrate sources such as rice comprise 30–50% of commercial pet foods. Some pet foods however have removed the use of grains and have instead incorporated pulses, such as peas and lentils, resulting in grain-free diets. The hypothesis was dog diets with higher levels of dietary fiber will produce a low glycemic response due to decreased rates of digestion and lowered bioavailability of all macronutrients and increased fecal bile salt excretion. This in turn was hypothesized to produce lower plasma concentrations of cysteine, methionine and taurine after 7 days of feeding each test diet in dogs. Six diets were formulated at an inclusion level of 20% available carbohydrate, using white rice flour (grain) or whole pulse flours from smooth pea, fava bean, red lentil or 2 different wrinkled pea varieties (CDC 4,140–4 or Amigold) and fed to beagles in a randomized, cross-over, blinded design. After 7 days feeding each diet, fasting blood glucose was the lowest in the lentil (3.5 ± 0.1 mmol/L) and wrinkled pea (4,140–4; 3.6 ± 0.1 mmol/L) diet periods, while peak glucose levels was lowest after feeding the lentil diet (4.4 ± 0.1 mmol/L) compared to the rice diet. Total tract apparent digestibility of all macronutrients as well as taurine differed among diets yet plasma taurine was not outside normal range. Decreased macronutrient and amino acid digestibility was associated with increasing amylose and dietary fiber content but the specific causative agent could not be determined from this study. Surprisingly, digestibility decreases were not due to increased bile salt loss in the feces since increasing dietary fiber content led to decreased fecal bile salt levels. In conclusion, although pulse-based canine diets have beneficial low glycemic properties, after only 7 days, these pulse-based diets decrease macronutrient and amino acid digestibility. This is likely related at least in part to the lower animal protein content, but on a long-term basis could put domestic dogs at risk for low taurine and dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background and ObjectivesCanary seed is a true cereal crop and classified as a “novel” food for human consumption. To explore potential food applications, the current study focused on evaluating the functional and nutritional properties of flours and protein isolates from glabrous (yellow and brown) canary seed.FindingsThe proximate composition, total starch and total amylose contents of the flours from both brown and yellow seeds were not significantly different. Both flours shared similar pasting properties and started developing viscosity at ~90°C. All the protein isolates showed >75% purity although were obtained in low yield (<5%). Most of the functional properties of the canary seed flour were significantly lower than those of the protein isolates. Similarly, lower digestibility of the flours (<32% in vitro protein digestibility‐corrected amino acid scores—PDCAAS) was evident in comparison with the isolates (>50% in vitro PDCAAS).ConclusionsThere are no significant differences between the yellow and brown canary seed proteins in terms of their composition, and functional and nutritional properties. However, marked differences were observed between the flours and protein isolates. The selection of yellow seed over the brown seed could be based on the color attributes of the flour or isolates for the intended product application.Significance and noveltyThis study provides insight on the protein quality, that is, functional and nutritional properties, of flour and protein isolates from yellow and brown canary seed. The findings provide prospects of selecting yellow seeds versus brown seeds for product applications based on their protein quality.

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In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration reported a link between canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and grain-free diets. Evidence to support a link has emerged, but the specific ingredients responsible and the role of taurine or other causative factors remain unclear. We hypothesized dogs fed pulse-based, grain-free diets for 28 days will show decreased macronutrient digestibility, increased fecal bile acid excretion, and reduced plasma cystine, cysteine, methionine and taurine, causing sub-clinical cardiac or blood changes indicative of early DCM. Three diets were formulated using white rice flour (grain), whole lentil (grain-free), or wrinkled pea (grain-free) and compared to the pre-trial phase on a commercial grain-based diet. After 28 days of feeding each diet, the wrinkled pea diet impaired stroke volume and cardiac output, increased end-systolic ventricular diameter and increased plasma N-Terminal Pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptide (NT-ProBNP), albeit in a sub-clinical manner. Digestibility of some macronutrients and sulphur-containing amino acids, excluding taurine, also decreased with pulse-based compared to grain-based diets, likely due to higher fiber levels. Plasma taurine levels were unchanged; however, plasma methionine was significantly lower after feeding all test diets compared to the commercial diet. Overall, DCM-like changes observed with the wrinkled pea diet, but not lentil diet, after only 4 weeks in a breed not known to be susceptible support a link between pea-based diets and canine nutritionally-mediated DCM.

Pasting and gelling behaviors of barley starches isolated from Cinnamon (waxy of 3.3% apparent amylose; WB), Golden Promise (normal of 26.2% amylose; NB), and amylose‐only (high‐amylose of 97.8% amylose; AO) varieties were examined over 95–140 °C cooking. Gelatinization temperatures of AO starch were significantly higher than those of WB and NB, thereby the former displaying negligible pasting viscosity at 95 °C heating. At 140 °C, AO starch was completely gelatinized and able to develop viscosity, particularly at the final pasting stage. Gel hardness of NB gradually decreased with higher cooking temperatures. After 140 °C cooking and storage, only AO starch formed a gel, exhibiting the largest hardness among the studied gels or pastes. Gelation mechanisms of the barley starches at 95—140 °C cooking were elucidated by visualizing their gel/paste microstructures under scanning electron microscopy. The insightful information on the physicochemical properties of the barley starches possessing 3.3–97.8% amylose will be meaningful for their industrial applications.