Cereals & Grains Association
Log In

Effect of deflavouring on the in vitro and in vivo protein quality of pea, lentil and faba bean protein concentrates
M. NOSWORTHY (1), A. Franczyk (1), J. Neufeld (1), J. House (1) (1) University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

Processing pulse flour can alter its protein quality through changes in amino acid composition, digestibility or both.  In this study the effect of deflavouring on the protein quality of pea, lentil and faba bean concentrates was investigated in a rodent model.  Rats (n=80, ~70g) were randomized to one of 8 diets: pea, lentil or faba bean concentrates or the corresponding deflavoured concentrate with casein and a commercial pea protein isolate acting as controls.  The protein efficiency ratio (PER), protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) and <i>in vitro</i> protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (IVPDCAAS) were calculated. The regular concentrates had PER values of 1.9 for pea, 1.1 for lentil and 1.2 for Faba bean, whereas the PER values of deflavoured concentrates were 1.6 for pea, 1.1 for lentil and 0.9 for faba bean. The PDCAAS and IVPDCAAS values of faba bean concentrate were 61.2 and 52.2 respectively and 42.3 and 37.6 for the deflavoured faba bean concentrate. These measurements were relatively unchanged in pea and lentil concentrates/deflavoured concentrates (< 7% difference).  Correlational analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the <i>in vivo</i> and <i>in vitro</i> measurements of protein quality.  Significant correlations were found between measurements of digestibility, (R2=0.6080, p=0.0225) and PDCAAS vs IVPDCAAS (R2=0.9824, p<0.0001). As a strong correlation was found between both digestibility and PDCAAS values generated from <i>in vitro </i>and <i>in </i>vivo methods, the use of <i>in vitro</i> digestibility analysis should be investigated as a potential replacement for the current rodent assay for nutrient content claim purposes.