Pea protein winegums?

Gels can for example be crumbly, elastic, brittle, etc. Gels made of gelatin are perceived as very elastic and crumbly, as can be perceived in desserts as Jell-O, and candies as wine gums. The reason for their large elasticity is that gelatin gels can store large amounts of energy. This is related to the type of network that gelatin molecules create, i.e, a network with very long fibrillar type of strands. This type of network is different than the networks created by other types of proteins, which often form particle gels.

Since gelatin is from animal origin, and the growing world population requires more proteins, there is a large need to find alternative sources of protein that can deliver the same functionality as gelatin. The successful replacement of gelatin in products such as wine gums by other proteins is not a straightforward exercise, as the network formation of gelatin is very specific. To retain its elastic behavior, fibrillar networks might be required. The question is whether other proteins also have the ability to create such networks? And which proteins can be used to make these fibrillar strands?

The project intends to investigate the functionality of different plant proteins. These different  proteins will be investigated for the ability to create a fibrillar type of network. Furthermore, these fibrils will then be tested for their ability to create elastic networks.

Research topics

• Compare network formation of different proteins
• Understand textural properties of gels prepared from various fibrillar-type networks
• Control parameters such as strand thickness by varying environmental conditions (pH, salt)

Techniques

• Microscopy (TEM, SEM)
• Light scattering (zetasizer)
• Rheology (rheometer, texture analyzer)