Composition and Properties of Aquafaba: Water Recovered from Commercially Canned Chickpeas

Abstract

Chickpea and other pulses are commonly sold as canned products packed in a thick solution or a brine. This solution has recently been shown to produce stable foams and emulsions, and can act as a thickener. Recently interest in this product has been enhanced through the internet where it is proposed that this solution, now called aquafaba by a growing community, can be used a replacement for egg and milk protein. As aquafaba is both new and being developed by an internet based community little is known of its composition or properties. Aquafaba was recovered from 10 commercial canned chickpea products and correlations among aquafaba composition, density, viscosity and foaming properties were investigated. Proton NMR was used to characterize aquafaba composition before and after ultrafiltration through membranes with different molecular weight cut offs (MWCOs of 3, 10, or 50 kDa). A protocol for electrophoresis, and peptide mass fingerprinting is also presented. Those methods provided valuable information regarding components responsible for aquafaba functional properties. This information will allow the development of practices to produce standard commercial aquafaba products and may help consumers select products of superior or consistent utility.

Aquafaba, wastewater from chickpea canning, functions as an egg replacer in sponge cake

“…To our knowledge, scientific peer‐reviewed information regarding aquafaba composition is limited; however, our previous study revealed that aquafaba from commercial chickpea cans consist of 94 g/100 g water, 1.5 g/100 g protein, 0.5 g/100 g ash and the remainder is simple and complex carbohydrates. Fat was not detected (Shim et al ., ). These results are in accordance with previously published data on garbanzo chickpea cooking water (Aquafaba, ; Stantiall et al ., ).…”

“…Aquafaba from commercial chickpea cans (kabuli cultivars) was recovered as previously described by Shim et al (2018). The chickpea cans were opened, and seed was separated from the aquafaba using a stainless steel mesh kitchen strainer.…”

“…Foaming capacity (FC) and foaming stability (FS) were determined according to Martinez et al (2016) and Shim et al (2018) for either fresh egg white, egg white liquid or aquafaba. Aquafaba (5 mL) or egg white (5 mL) were diluted with 10 mL water in 150 mL graduated measuring cup, then whipped for 2 min at speed setting 10 using a Kitchen Aid Ultra Power Mixer (Kitchen Aid, St. Joseph's, MI) with a 4.3 L stationary bowl.…”

“…meringue-based recipes (Stantiall et al, 2018), mayonnaise, vegan cakes, butter and whipped cream, etc.). Unfortunately, aquafaba functional properties vary depending on chickpea seed composition, steeping time, temperature, pressure, cooking time and genotype (Shim et al, 2018). It would be expected that chickpeas from commercially available brands might be prepared under different conditions and that this could lead to differences in the quality of aquafaba arising from each brand.…”

“…Variances in processing conditions might result in inconsistent and irreproducible aquafaba quality, stability and foaming properties where the manufacturing conditions were varied. There are only two peer-reviewed publications on aquafaba (Shim et al, 2018;Stantiall et al, 2018). Therefore, the objectives of this research are to 1) study aquafaba's foaming and emulsifying properties for aquafaba prepared from commercially available chickpeas; 2) choose aquafaba with the best functional properties to replace egg white in a sponge cake recipe; and 3) compare physiochemical and textural properties of aquafaba and egg white cake.…”