Tackling the off-flavor challenge of Swedish legume protein concentrates and widening their application area in Swedish plant-based foods

A reduction in animal product consumption is a world-wide goal to counter climate change.

It is a critical task for food industry and scientific research to develop food products that shift consumption towards a more plant-based diet.

While there are multiple factors contributing to consumers’ behaviors towards their food product selection, one of the major limiting factors is the flavour (taste, aroma, and texture).

Currently, there is a variety of meat analogues on the market, many of which suffer from undesirable off-flavours and are made of environmentally impacting protein isolates.

An all-Sweden-based supply chain for a more sustainable production of legume protein concentrates and the food products thereof is a step towards better sustainability.

The main challenge with using legume protein concentrates is reducing their off-flavours without impairing other protein properties.

Therefore, it is the aim of this project to adapt the manufacturing process of protein concentrates to improve the flavour.

Simultaneously, a better understanding of the impacts of the various processing steps on the flavour and antinutrients will be gained by applying a multi-disciplinary, applied research approach looking at sensory properties, volatile and non-volatile compositional data, as well as physical and chemical functional property analyses.

The results from this research project will increase the applicability of these concentrates in food products on the ever-competing market.