Canola/Rapeseed Protein: Future Opportunities and Directions—Workshop Proceedings of IRC 2015

Abstract

At present, canola meal is primarily streamlined into the animal feed market where it is a competitive animal feed source owing to its high protein value. Beyond animal feed lies a potential game-changer with regards to the value of canola meal, and its opportunity as a high quality food protein source. An economic and sustainable source of protein with high bioavailability and digestibility is essential to human health and well-being. Population pressures, ecological considerations, and production efficiency underscore the importance of highly bioavailable plant proteins, both for the developed and developing world. Despite decades of research, several technologies being developed, and products being brought to large scale production, there are still no commercially available canola protein products. The workshop entitled “Canola/Rapeseed Protein—Future Opportunities and Directions” that was held on 8 July 2015 during the 14th International Rapeseed Congress (IRC 2015) addressed the current situation and issues surrounding canola meal protein from the technological, nutritional, regulatory and genomics/breeding perspective. Discussions with participants and experts in the field helped to identify economic barriers and research gaps that need to be addressed in both the short and long term for the benefit of canola industry.

Impact of Power Ultrasound on Antihypertensive Activity, Functional Properties, and Thermal Stability of Rapeseed Protein Hydrolysates

“…The solutions were incubated and stirred continuously using magnetic stirrer for 30 min in a thermostat water bath at 40 ∘ C to ensure complete dissolution and then subjected to cool to room temperature. After that, the solutions were given treatment using probe-type sonicator ( Figure 1) (GA98-IID, Shanghai Biotechnology Co., Wuxi, China) at 20 kHz with a 1.5 cm flat tip probe (diameter of 2 cm) which was immersed into the rapeseed protein solution for different irradiation time (3,6,9,12,15, and 18 min) and at different powers (200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and 1200 watts).…”

“…This process results in two canola protein isolates, one of which being rich in cruciferin (commercially known as Puratein5) and the other one being rich in napin (commercially known as Supertein6). Both Supertein and Puratein (Burcon NutraScience) have generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for food use [3]. The use of these by-products could be improved by its use as a raw material for the production of functional and bioactive food constituents.…”

Pilot-Scale Production and Application of Microparticulated Plant Proteins

“…Tan et al [7] reviewed the studies on the utilization of canola protein in human food, comprising the extraction processes for protein isolates and fractions, the molecular character of the extracted proteins, as well as their food functional properties. Canola protein has a well-balanced amino acid profile, with a protein digestibilitycorrected amino acid score that is very competitive with other plant proteins currently on the market [8]. Seed storage proteins that include cruciferin [11S] and napin [2S] dominate the protein complement of canola while oleosins, lipid transfer proteins and other minor proteins of non-storage nature are also found [9].…”

“…Pepsin-hydrolysed protein concentrates showed significant angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibition and radical scavenging activity [15]. In addition, antioxidant, antidiabetic, anorexigenic, anticancer, antiviral, hypercholesterolemic and bile acid binding activities have been reported for peptides and hydrolysate fractions generated from canola proteins [8,16]. Hemp seed enzymatic hydrolysates have also proven effective during in vitro and in vivo tests as antioxidant and antihypertensive agents.…”

“…Enzymes with specific activities towards the ballast compounds can be also used to purify proteins. Protein concentrates may also be prepared by acid or ethanol leaching, and this is the typical wet process for soybean protein concentrates [8]. Spray drying is usually used to produce powders from the protein rich solutions.…”