Give peas a chance: Selection of peas suitable for future plant-based foods (PEAS)

There is a growing need to replace animal protein with plant protein to make food production more sustainable. Plant-based alternatives are a major force behind this shift, but animal proteins have unique sensory and textural qualities that are hard to match. Plant proteins have a different structure than animal proteins, and many plant-based products on the market today are rejected by consumers because of their poor texture.

This project aims to find pea cultivars from the NordGen genebank that are better suited for plant-based products than the commercially available ones and require less processing.

Legume storage proteins are commonly used to replace animal proteins in plant-based foods. However, they often have weaker gelation capacity, which is a crucial property in many food products. To overcome this, energy-intensive processes like fractionation and heating are used, but more sustainable solutions are needed.

This project aims to explore the genetic variation in over 2,400 pea accessions from the Nordic genebank to find pea seeds with an optimal protein composition of albumins, globulins, and specific proteins (such as legumins and vicilins) that provide the desired gelling functionality for plant-based foods. By leveraging natural variation, the project seeks to achieve the necessary functionality without relying on intensive processing.

Advanced proteomics, X-ray scattering, and bioinformatics tools will be used to analyze the protein compositions of different pea accessions and to understand the gelation mechanisms of pea proteins.

Contact

PI, Associate Professor René Lametsch

Funding

Period: 2022 - 2026

Amount: DKK 2.880.000

Source: Independent Research Fund Denmark, Green Solution Grant