Tailoring chickpea protein functionality for food applications through supercritical CO2 processing

Tailoring chickpea protein functionality for food applications through supercritical CO2 processing

Food Research International

10.1016/j.foodres.2025.117161

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2025.117161

Gomathy Sandhya Subramanian, Daryl Lee, Su Hui Lim, Sergey Gorelik, Celyne Halim, Ashley Lim, Shi Jie Ang, Dylan Hao Wen Swee, Uma Jingxin Tay, Sreenivasa Reddy Puniredd, Khin Yin Win, Yoganathan Kanagasundaram, Md Mahabubur Rahman Talukder, Maria N. Antipina

30 July 2025

Subramanian, G. S., Lee, D., Lim, S. H., Gorelik, S., Halim, C., Lim, A., Ang, S. J., Swee, D. H. W., Tay, U. J., Puniredd, S. R., Win, K. Y., Kanagasundaram, Y., Talukder, M. M. R., & Antipina, M. N. (2025). Tailoring chickpea protein functionality for food applications through supercritical CO2 processing. Food Research International, 220, 117161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2025.117161

This study evaluates the use of supercritical CO2 (SCCO2) as a dual-purpose method for defatting and modulating the functional properties of chickpea protein. Two processing routes were investigated: 1) post-extraction SCCO2 modification of protein obtained from full-fat flour (CP series), and 2) flour defatting followed by protein extract modification with SCCO2 at different pressures (DFCP series). CP0 and DFCP0 refer to proteins from untreated and SCCO2-defatted flours, respectively; CP75–800 and DFCP75–800 underwent additional SCCO2 treatments at indicated pressures. SCCO2 defatting at 850 bar and 65 °C reduced flour fat content by ∼79 % and yielded an 87.6 % pure protein extract (DFCP0) compared to ∼64 % in untreated CP0. Post-extraction SCCO2 treatment further enhanced DFCP protein purity to >90 % at pressures ≥75 bar. Notably, solubility in DFCP75 reached 92.7 %, a 13 % improvement over the untreated DFCP0. SCCO2 defatting prior to extraction efficiently improved protein gelling, lowering the minimum gelling concentration (MGC) from 20 wt% (CP0) to 10 wt% (DFCP0). Subsequent SCCO2 treatment further reduced MGC to 8 wt% in DFCP75-DFCP300. CP samples treated at 500–800 bar exhibited the highest foaming capacity (126.7 %) and a 50 % increase in water-holding capacity. Structural analyses confirmed pressure-dependent changes in denaturation enthalpy, secondary structure, and aggregation. Principal component analysis revealed SCCO2 pressure as a dominant factor, explaining 49 % and 47 % of the multivariate variation in CP and DFCP, respectively. These findings demonstrate that SCCO2 processing is a powerful and tunable method for producing high-purity, functionally enhanced chickpea protein suitable for food applications.

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This research is supported by core funding from: Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) under the Career Development Fund – CDF 2022 grant
Grant Reference no. : C222812018

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/22114

0963-9969

Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2025.117161