Plant leaf proteins for food applications: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Plant-based proteins are gaining a lot of attention for their health benefits and are considered as an alternative to animal proteins for developing sustainable food systems. Against the backdrop, ensuring a healthy diet supplemented with good quality protein will be a massive responsibility of governments across the globe. Increasing the yield of food crops has its limitations, including low acceptance of genetically modified crops, land availability for cultivation, and the need for large quantities of agrochemicals. It necessitates the sensible use of existing resources and farm output to derive the proteins. On average, the protein content of plant leaves is similar to that of milk, which can be efficiently tapped for food applications across the globe. There has been limited research on utilizing plant leaf proteins for food product development over the years, which has not been fruitful. However, the current global food production scenario has pushed some leading economies to reconsider the scope of plant leaf proteins with dedicated efforts. It is evident from installing pilot-scale demonstration plants for protein extraction from agro-food residues to cater to the protein demand with product formulation. The present study thoroughly reviews the opportunities and challenges linked to the production of plant leaf proteins, including its nutritional aspects, extraction and purification strategies, anti-nutritional factors, functional and sensory properties in food product development, and finally, its impact on the environment.

Plasma Bubbling of Soymilk: Impact on Allergenicity, Antinutritional Factor, and E-Nose-Retrieved Sensory Characteristics

“…Conductivity adjustments are crucial for allergen reduction as they influence protein interactions and solubility. By modifying conductivity, the potential for allergen cross-linking and aggregation can be controlled, enhancing the safety of allergen-sensitive individuals . In terms of conductivity, plasma-bubbled soymilk showed a positive response and elevated the conductivity value constantly from 173.03 ± 0.40 μS (control) to 183.5 ± 1.73 μS (200 V – 25 min).…”

“…By modifying conductivity, the potential for allergen cross-linking and aggregation can be controlled, enhancing the safety of allergen-sensitive individuals. 22 In terms of conductivity, plasma-bubbled soymilk showed a positive response and elevated the conductivity value constantly from 173.03 ± 0.40 μS (control) to 183.5 ± 1.73 μS (200 V − 25 min). The increase in the conductivity values was not significant at 100 and 200 V treatments when the exposure time was restricted to 1).…”

RuBisCO: a sustainable protein ingredient for plant-based foods

“…Merr.) protein, RuBisCO has lower emulsifying activity (Anoop et al, 2023), but it is higher than egg albumin (Nieuwland et al, 2021). Notably, RuBisCO extracted from dried alfalfa (M. sativa L.) has high emulsifying properties (capacity 158-219m 2 g −1 protein, stability 17-49 min), particularly at higher pH levels viz., ≥7 (Hojilla-Evangelista et al, 2017).…”

Processed foods: From their emergence to resilient technologies

“…Plants are by far the largest biomass on Earth with ∼450 Gt carbon of a total biomass of ∼550 Gt carbon (Bar-On et al, 2018). After early work started post World War I, the high biological value as well as opportunities and challenges for the production of leaf protein concentrates was provided by Anoop et al (2023). Using pilot scale pressing systems with pulsed electric Applying pulsed electric field (PEF) pretreatments of a ryegrass-clover blend, and using a pilot scale pressing system resulted in an increase of 31% of crude protein yields compared to the PEF untreated control (Guo et al, 2022).…”