Production of texturized vegetable proteins (TVPs) from pulses and their application in meat products

The overall goal of this thesis was to examine the impact of extrusion parameters on the functional attributes of faba bean and lentil protein extrudates, and their utilization in vegan or hybrid burger applications. Such parameters include screw speed (300 to 450 rpm), die temperature (110ºC to 140ºC), and feed moisture (30, 35, and 40 g water/100 g feed). A lab scale twin-screw extruder was used to produce lentil and faba bean-based TVPs with a wide range of physical and functional properties. The extrusion conditions did not affect the protein content of the TVPs (~84% dry basis) compared to the raw material. For both TVPs the physical properties including color, showed a decrease in brightness with an increase in redness and yellowness attributed to the Maillard reaction. For the specific mechanical energy, there was a trend observed due to the changes in the viscoelastic properties of the raw material affected by all the extrusion variables. For the functional properties, an increase in moisture showed a significant change in the bulk density of TVPs and in consequence in an increase in the rehydration ratio (~214% for lentil-based TVPs and ~308% for faba bean-based TVPs with 40% MC). A significant effect was observed with changes in moisture content and screw speed with no effect of temperature for water and oil holding capacity for lentil-based TVPs. In contrast, for faba bean-based TVPs the functional properties showed a significant effect with the increase of screw speed for water holding capacity and changes in oil holding capacity (