Alternative food processing techniques and their effects on physico- chemical and functional properties of pulse starch: a review

Abstract

Thermal processing remains the key processing technology for food products. However, there are some limitations for thermal processing such as loss of sensory and nutritional quality. Furthermore, nowadays consumers are looking forward for fresh like products which are free from chemical preservatives, yet having longer shelf life. Thus, alternative processing techniques are gaining popularity among food processors to replace conventional thermal processing keeping nutritional quality, sensory attributes and food safety in mind. The alternative processing techniques such as ultrasound, gamma irradiation, high pressure processing and microwave treatment causes several modifications (structural changes, effects on swelling and solubility index, gelatinization behaviour, pasting or rheological properties, retrogradation and cooking time) in physicochemical and functional properties of pulse starches which offers several advantages from commercial point of view. This review aims to summarize the effect of different alternative processing techniques on the structure, solubility, gelatinization, retrogradation and pasting properties of various pulse starches.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-022-05557-3.

Keywords: Gamma irradiation; High pressure processing; Microwave processing; Pulse starch; Ultrasound processing.

Fig. 1

Scanning electron micrographs of pulse starch. a: Pea, b: Lentil, c: Chickpea (× 1000) d: Corn (× 2000) e: Wheat (× 600) f: Waxy maize (× 1000). Source: Chung et al. , Vaclavik and Christian (Reprinted with permission from publisher)

Fig. 2

Starch pasting curve showing typical measurements. Source: Rayner et al. 2016 (Reprinted with permission from publisher)

Fig. 3

Effect of different alternate food processing techniques on the microstructure of pulse starches a Ultrasound treated Green lentil (1) control (2) 40% ultrasound (3) 70% ultrasound (4) 100% ultrasound amplitudes; b Irradiated chickpea starches (at 7 kV) (1) 0 kGy (2) 1 kGy (3) 5 kGy (4) 10 kGy; c High pressure processed lentil starch (1) control (2) 400 MPa (3) 500 MPa (4) 600 MPa; d Microwave treated lentil starch (1) control (2) 650 W/6 min/85 °C treated sample. Sources: Karaman et al. 2016; Bashir et al. 2017; Ahmed et al. ; Gonzalez and Perez 2002 (Reprinted with permission from publisher)

Fig. 4

Gelatinization mechanism of starch induced by heat and pressure. Source: Kim et al. 2012 (Reprinted with permission from publisher)

Fig. 5

Effect of different alternate food processing techniques on the pasting properties of pulse starches a Effect of ultrasound processing on pasting properties of pea and vetch starch; b Effect of gamma irradiation on pasting properties of chickpea and kidney bean starch; c Effect of high pressure processing on pasting properties of mung bean starch; d Effect of microwave processing on pasting properties of lentil starch. (Plotted based on the data extracted from Majeed et al. ; Bashir and Aggarwal ; Gani et al. ; Li et al. ; Gonzalez and Perez 2002)

Fig. 6

Effect of microwave processing on cooking time of pulses. (plotted based on the data extracted from Divekar et al. 2016)