Dynamic high pressure treatments: current advances on mechanistic-cum-transport phenomena approaches and plant protein functionalization

Abstract

Dynamic high pressure treatment (DHPT) either by high pressure homogenization or microfluidisation, is an emerging concept used in the food industry for new products development through macromolecules modifications in addition to simple mixing and emulsification action. Mechanistic understanding of droplets breakup during high pressure homogenization is used to understand how these compact and high molecular weight-sized globular plant proteins are affected during DHPTs. Plant protein needs to be functionalized for advanced use in food formulation. DHPTs brought changes in plant proteins’ secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures through alterations in intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, sulfhydryl groups, and disulfide bonds. These structural changes in plant proteins affected their functional and physicochemical properties like solubility, oil and water holding capacity, gelation, emulsification, foaming, and rheological properties. These remarkable changes made utilization of this concept in novel food system applications like in plant-based dairy analogues. Overall, this review provides a comprehensive and critical understanding of DHPTs on their mechanistic and transport approaches for droplet breakup, structural and functional modification of plant macromolecules. This article also explores the potential of DHPT for formulating plant-based dairy analogues to meet healthy and sustainable food consumption needs.

HIGHLIGHTS

• It critically reviews high pressure homogenization (HPH) and microfluidisation (DHPM).

• It explores the mechanistic and transport phenomena approaches of HPH and DHPM

• HPH and DHPM can induce conformational and structural changes in plant proteins.

• Improvement in the functional properties of HPH and DHPM treated plant proteins.

• HPH and DHPM are potentially applicable for plant based dairy alternatives food system.

Keywords:

• High pressure homogenization
• microfluidization
• plant proteins
• plant based dairy products
• dairy alternatives
• physical modification of plant proteins

Acknowledgements

The technical support received from NIFTEM Knowledge Centre (NIFTEM Kundli, HR, India) is greatly acknowledged. First author also acknowledges the AICTE, New Delhi for providing GATE scholarship.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Sahil: Conceptualization, Writing- Original draft preparation. Mitali Madhumita: Conceptualization, Reviewing and Editing. Pramod K. Prabhakar: Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, reviewing, and editing. Nitin Kumar: Reviewing and Editing.

Disclosure statement

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.