Legume byproducts as ingredients for food applications: Preparation, nutrition, bioactivity, and techno‐functional properties

Abstract

The demand for high-quality alternative food proteins has increased over the last few decades due to nutritional and environmental concerns, leading to the growing consumption of legumes such as common bean, chickpea, lentil, lupin, and pea. However, this has also increased the quantity of non-utilized byproducts (such as seed coats, pods, broken seeds, and wastewaters) that could be exploited as sources of ingredients and bioactive compounds in a circular economy. This review focuses on the incorporation of legume byproducts into foods when they are formulated as flours, protein/fiber or solid/liquid fractions, or biological extracts and uses an analytical approach to identify their nutritional, health-promoting, and techno-functional properties. Correlation-based network analysis of nutritional, technological, and sensory characteristics was used to explore the potential of legume byproducts in food products in a systematic manner. Flour is the most widely used legume-based food ingredient and is present at levels of 2%-30% in bakery products, but purified fractions and extracts should be investigated in more detail. Health beverages and vegan dressings with an extended shelf-life are promising applications thanks to the techno-functional features of legume byproducts (e.g., foaming and emulsifying behaviors) and the presence of polyphenols. A deeper exploration of eco-friendly processing techniques (e.g., fermentation and ohmic treatment) is necessary to improve the techno-functional properties of ingredients and the sensory characteristics of foods in a sustainable manner. The processing of legume byproducts combined with improved legume genetic resources could enhance the nutritional, functional, and technological properties of ingredients to ensure that legume-based foods achieve wider industrial and consumer acceptance.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Chickpea Agronomic Practices in the World During 45 Years of Scientific Research

“…This bibliometric analysis shows the progress made in research towards the most common agricultural practices. The next research trends should focus on aspects related to biostimulants and agricultural practices that can significantly influence the qualitative aspects related to protein content, protein yield, reduction of antinutritional factors (Carbonaro 2011;Idate et al 2021), bioactive properties, and polyphenolic compounds (Nartea et al 2023). In addition, a further objective that research will have to achieve is to reduce inputs by ensuring greater environmental and economic sustainability aimed at circular agriculture (Reckling et al 2016).…”

A Comprehensive Study from Cradle-to-Grave on the Environmental Profile of Malted Legumes

“…Although there is an interest, in line with circular economy concepts, in utilizing all by-products (seed hulls, pods, broken seeds, protruding roots, etc.) from legume processing as ingredients or raw materials for extracting bioactive compounds [ 52 ], in this study, it was assumed that they were disposed of as animal feed, as small producers of dry legumes are deemed unsuitable for any profitable valorization. The recovered powders (PO) and herbaceous fraction (E) are instead returned to agricultural soil.…”

The unexplored diversity of wild lupins provides rich genomic resources and insights into lupin evolution

“…The genus Lupinus (lupins) is part of the genistoid clade of leguminous plants (Fabaceae). It includes five domesticated but underutilized crop species that produce highly nutritious seeds (Nartea et al 2023) with a protein content of up to 40% (Rawal 2019, Zhao et al 2022. Lupins could therefore contribute to a healthy and sustainable human diet (Bellucci et al 2021, Bulut et al 2023, FAO 2023.…”