Addition of Salt Ions before Spraying Improves Heat- and Cold-Induced Gel Properties of Soy Protein Isolate (SPI)

Abstract

Spray drying is used in the food industry to convert liquids into dry powders. The effect of the addition of salt ions before spray drying to improve the heat- and cold-induced gel properties of soy protein isolate (SPI) was investigated. Certain concentrations of Na+ (0.005–0.01 M), Mg2+ (0.005 M), and Ca2+ (0.005 M) significantly increased the hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness, gumminess, resilience, and water holding capacity of the heat- and cold-induced gels. This effect arises predominantly due to the functional groups buried in the protein matrix that are partially exposed to improve the interactions between the protein molecules. The main interactions that promoted gel formation and maintained the three-dimensional structure of the heat- and cold-induced gels were hydrophobic and disulfide interactions. Analysis using scanning electron microscopy showed that the heat- and cold-induced gels were uniform, had smooth surfaces, and had smaller pores with added Na+ (0.01 M), Mg2+ (0.005 M), and Ca2+ (0.005 M). The results indicate that we might broaden the applications of SPI by simulating the industrial gel manufacturing process for products such as fish balls and chiba tofu. Overall, adding salt ions before spray drying could offer great potential for the development of SPI with enhanced functionality suitable for comminuted meat products.

Functionality of Ingredients and Additives in Plant-Based Meat Analogues

“…Salt remains an important taste enhancer. However, when in contact with proteins, it affects their functionalities [ 22 ]. Current nutritional trends aim at reducing salt content and especially sodium, leading to some product formulation challenges, not only for sausage-types of products but also for comminuted products and whole-cuts.…”

Effect of the incorporation of galactomannans and solid lipid particles stabilized with different surfactants in the properties and stability of cold-set gels

“…Among the most importante plant-based protein ingredients are the soy protein isolates, which present interesting nutritional value and important functional properties, as previously discussed (CHEN ET AL 2017;MALTAIS;MALTAIS;MOURE et al, 2006;NISHINARI et al, 2014;ZHENG et al, 2019;ZHAO et al, 2021). RIOUX; MCCLEMENTS, 2006;SCHMITT et al, 1998).…”

“…In fact, several other studies also cite the gelling capacity as a crucial functionality of the SPI but reinforce the poor stability of the protein gels formed may limit its application in certain types of food WU et al, 2018;XIAO et al, 2020;ZHAO et al, 2021;ZHENG et al, 2019). However, it has been demonstrated that functional characteristics of the protein gel can be improved by the incorporation of polysaccharides to the systems, evindencing the importance of the continuous development of studies that investigate the gelling capacity of commercial SPIs to expand their application (GOUZY et al, 2019;ZHOU et al, 2014).…”

Soy fractionation pathways for food applications

“…The gelation ability of soy proteins is important for the textural properties of food systems. Soybean proteins can form heat-induced and cold-set gels (Zheng et al, 2019).…”

“…Calcium caseinate, which is treated with Ca(OH) 2 , allows the formation of a highly anisotropic structure (meat-like) in a shear cell device at 50°C. In contrast, sodium caseinate only forms an isotropic structure under similar processing conditions (Manski et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2019). This is indicative of the effect that the different hydroxides have on the properties of proteins.…”