Search Results (6)

Legumes, rich in protein, fiber, and micronutrients, are increasingly popular in pulse-based and gluten-free foods despite global consumption stagnating at 21 g/day due to taste, low protein digestibility, anti-nutrients, and long cooking times. Bean resistance to cooking causes textural defects like the hardshell and hard-to-cook phenomena. The pectin–cation–phytate hypothesis explains why soaking beans in sodium salts reduces cooking time by enhancing pectin solubility in water. Gradoli Purgatory beans (GPB), from Italy′s Latium region, were malted, reducing phytic acid by 32% and oligosaccharides by 63%. This study evaluated the hardness of cooked GPB seeds in various conditions, including decorticated or malted states, using a modified standard method. Cooking at 98 °C for 7–75 min on an induction hob with a water-to-seed ratio of 4 g/g was tested. Soaking was applied before cooking for conventional seeds only, followed by texture analysis. Conventional GPBs were adequately cooked if their cotyledons disintegrated upon pressing, requiring a force peak of 250 to 220 N and cooking times of 52 to 57 min. Malted, decorticated, and split GPBs cooked similarly to raw decorticated and split ones, with times of 32 and 25 min, respectively. Faster cooking was due to bean coat removal and splitting, not chemical changes. Sodium or potassium carbonate/bicarbonate at 1–2 g/L improved cooking efficiency, with 2 g/L of sodium carbonate reducing cooking time to 13 min. Higher concentrations caused non-uniform cooking. Cooking malted, decorticated, and split GPBs in sodium-carbonated water reduced greenhouse gas emissions from 561 to 368 g CO_2e/kg, meeting the demand for eco-friendly and nutritionally enhanced plant protein sources. Full article

The current research examined the impact of different concentrations of oat beta-glucan (OG) on the in vitro digestibility of fava bean starch (FS). Our pasting analysis demonstrated that OG effectively decreased the viscosity and regrowth of FS, suppressing its in situ regrowth while enhancing the in vitro pasting temperature. Moreover, OG markedly diminished amylose leaching and minimized the particle size of the pasted starch. Rheological and textural evaluations demonstrated that OG markedly diminished the viscoelasticity of the starch and softened the gel strength of the composite system. Structural analysis revealed that hydrogen bonding is the primary interaction in the FS-OG system, indicating that OG interacts with amylose through hydrogen bonding, thereby delaying starch pasting and enhancing the gelatinization characteristics of FS gels. Notably, the incorporation of OG resulted in a reduction in the levels of rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and slowly digestible starch (SDS) in FS, accompanied by a notable increase in resistant starch (RS) content, from 21.30% to 31.82%. This study offers crucial insights for the application of OG in starch-based functional foods. Full article

In this study, a microwave was used on adzuki beans (Arari and Geomguseul) without water, in order to investigate their changes in microstructure, water absorption, and antioxidative properties. As the microwave treatment time increased (2450 MHz, 0 to 60 s), the lightness, redness, and yellowness were reduced, and moisture content significantly decreased in both varieties. The microstructure space between the seed coat, cotyledon, and pores within the cotyledon were observed, due to the loss of moisture. Regardless of microwave treatment, the water absorption behavior of the adzuki beans was sigmoidal. However, the water absorption kinetics of Arari increased after microwave treatment, whereas with microwave-treated Geomguseul, the water absorption rate decreased, compared to the control, except for the sample treated for 30 s. During soaking, the water absorption and softening rates in the microwave-treated adzuki bean were twice as fast as the untreated beans. Antioxidant activity, total phenolic compounds, and total flavonoid compounds were greatly improved by microwave treatment. These results indicate that microwave treatment affects the color, hydration, and bioactive compounds, and it can be used as a pretreatment method before processing adzuki beans. Full article

Legumes are typically soaked overnight to reduce antinutrients and then cooked prior to consumption. However, thermal processing can cause over-softening of legumes. This study aimed to determine the effect of calcium addition (0, 100, 300, and 500 ppm in the form of calcium chloride, CaCl₂), starting from the overnight soaking step, in reducing the loss of firmness of black beans during thermal processing for up to 2 h. The impact of calcium addition on the in vitro starch and protein digestibility of cooked beans was also assessed. Two strategies of calcium addition were employed in this study: (Strategy 1/S1) beans were soaked and then cooked in the same CaCl₂ solution, or (Strategy 2/S2) cooked in a freshly prepared CaCl₂ solution after the calcium-containing soaking medium was discarded. Despite the texture degradation of black beans brought about by increasing the cooking time, texture profile analysis (TPA) revealed that their hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, chewiness, and resilience improved significantly (p < 0.05) with increasing calcium concentration. Interestingly, beans cooked for 2 h with 300 ppm CaCl₂ shared similar hardness with beans cooked for 1 h without calcium addition. Starch and protein digestibility of calcium-treated beans generally improved with prolonged cooking. However, calcium-treated beans cooked for 1 h under S2 achieved a reduced texture loss and a lower starch digestibility than those beans treated in S1. A lower starch digestion could be desired as this reflects a slow rise in blood glucose levels. Findings from this result also showed that treating black beans with high level of CaCl₂ (i.e., 500 ppm) was not necessary, otherwise this would limit protein digestibility of cooked black beans. Full article

Recently, the enrichment of chocolate has become a very interesting topic, along with the management of food industry by-products, such as cocoa shells. Cocoa shells could be a great raw material for the cocoa industry, both for economical reasons (maximized utilization of cocoa beans) and for their functional properties (increased fiber content). In this research, we used untreated and high-voltage electrical discharge (HVED)-treated cocoa shells in the production of chocolate. Different proportions of cocoa mass were replaced with cocoa shells to produce dark and milk chocolates in a ball mill. Additionally, dark chocolate with 15% and milk chocolate with 5% of shells were chosen for further research and to study the alteration of the composition. The rheology, particle size distribution, hardness, and color were determined for all the prepared samples. Treated cocoa shells provided chocolates with inferior physical properties compared to chocolates with untreated shells. Therefore, untreated cocoa shells were selected for further analysis. The addition of both treated and untreated cocoa shells resulted in softening and darkening of samples, which could have a positive effect for consumers. On the other hand, the particle size distribution and rheology were negatively affected. Further research is needed to find a solution for these problems. Full article

Post-harvest characteristics of common beans influences its classification, which significantly affects processing time and energy requirements. In this work, ten bean cultivars were classified as either easy-to-cook (ETC) or hard-to-cook (HTC) based on a traditional subjective finger pressing test and a scientific objective hardness test. The hardness study used seed coat rigidity to explain the structural deformation observed during cooking. The result shows that the average hardness of raw dry ETC and HTC beans was 102.4 and 170.8 N, respectively. The maximum seed coat resistance is observed within the first 30 min of cooking regardless of the classification. The results show that a modified three-parameter non-linear regression model could accurately predict the rate of bean softening (R² = 0.994–0.999 and RMSE = 3.3–14.7%). The influence of bean softeners such as potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃) and sodium chloride (NaCl) to reduce cooking time was also investigated. The results showed that the addition of K₂CO₃ to the cooking water significantly reduced the cooking time by up to 50% for ETC and 57% for HTC. Full article