Plant Protein-Carbohydrate Conjugates: A Review of Their Production, Functionality and Nutritional Attributes

ABSTRACT

The food industry has shown a great increase towards plant-based products, specifically concerning alternative sources of proteins, and their applications into different food products. Due to their amphiphilic nature, proteins present functional properties that can be further improved through the covalent attachment of a carbohydrate, enhancing their solubility, foaming and gelling properties, as well as increasing their thermal stability, allowing their use in a wider range of products. This review presents different preparation methods to obtain protein-carbohydrate conjugates through wet and dry methods, their functional properties, as well as their nutritional attributes and uses.

KEYWORDS:

• Plant proteins
• carbohydrates
• conjugates
• glycosylation
• functional properties

Acknowledgments

This review was funded by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Research Chair Program in Protein Quality and Utilization at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK, Canada)

Declaration of interest

None of the authors had a conflict of interest with this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture.