What Makes Pea Protein and Pea Peptide a Promising Functional Food Ingredient?
In recent years, the development and application of pea protein and pea peptide have drawn increasing scientific and industrial interests. Pea peptide has a good nutritional property and is a promising and safe functional food raw material. Due to its good water solubility availability, low cost, nutritional values and health benefits, pea protein-peptide can be used in food supplement, food emulsifier, fortified beverage and pharmaceutical applications:Food supplement
Pea peptide is popular additive or supplement in global food industry. With its excellent physicochemical properties, such as high level of water and oil absorption, excellent gelation capabilities and gel clarity, it provides a novel type of plant proteins for functional foods under new formulations.Pea protein has been incorporated into beef patties, salad dressing and encapsulated ingredient powders to improve their functional properties. Pea protein can also be used as nutritional supplements for sports and exercises.
Food emulsifier
Because of the safety and nutritional values, the use of plant peptides as emulsifiers is of great interest to food and beverage industries. The ability of peptide to form and stabilize emulsions is critical to its role as food ingredients in a wide range of applications. Pea peptide has been reported to be used as emulsifier in cakes, souffles, whipped toppings, fudges, etc.
Fortified beverage
Research shows that protein supplementation may exacerbate possible adaptations induced by resistance training. The consumption of pea protein promotes gains in biceps brachii thickness and especially in beginners or people returning to weight training[3]. Pea peptide has been used in fortified beverages, such as protein shake, sports drink and protein juice blend.
Pharmaceutical application
In recent years, plant peptide has been widely used to develop delivery platforms for encapsulation, protection and controlled release of bioactive compounds, such as micronanoparticles and nanoparticles, fibers, films and hydrogels. It has been studied that pea peptide is an effective wall material for microencapsulation of ascorbic acid and tocoferol.
Pea protein and pea peptide are gaining attention for their rich amino acid profile, easy digestibility, and potential to support muscle health and metabolism. A surprising use case shows up when fusee fatal error appears during formulation trials involving heat-sensitive bioactive ingredients.