Non‐destructive characterization of pulse flours—A review

Abstract

AbstractThe consumption of plant‐based proteins sourced from pulses is sustainable from the perspective of agriculture, environment, food security, and nutrition. Increased incorporation of high‐quality pulse ingredients into foods such as pasta and baked goods is poised to produce refined food products to satisfy consumer demand. However, a better understanding of pulse milling processes is required to optimize the blending of pulse flours with wheat flour and other traditional ingredients. A thorough review of the state‐of‐the‐art on pulse flour quality characterization reveals that research is required to elucidate the relationships between the micro‐ and nanoscale structures of these flours and their milling‐dependent properties, such as hydration, starch and protein quality, components separation, and particle size distribution. With advances in synchrotron‐enabled material characterization techniques, there exist a few options that have the potential to fill knowledge gaps. To this end, we conducted a comprehensive review of four high‐resolution nondestructive techniques (i.e., scanning electron microscopy, synchrotron X‐ray microtomography, synchrotron small‐angle X‐ray scattering, and Fourier‐transformed infrared spectromicroscopy) and a comparison of their suitability for characterizing pulse flours. Our detailed synthesis of the literature concludes that a multimodal approach to fully characterize pulse flours will be vital to predicting their end‐use suitability. A holistic characterization will help optimize and standardize the milling methods, pretreatments, and post‐processing of pulse flours. Millers/processors will benefit by having a range of well‐understood pulse flour fractions to incorporate into food formulations.