Ben Kew co-authors a paper on pea protein astringency in Food Hydrocolloids

Ben Kew (PhD Student, ERC LubSat Project) published a study titled "Difference in astringency of the main pea protein fractions" led by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in collaboration with Givaudan in Switzerland in Food Hydrocolloids. In this study led by Dr. Hanna Lesme (Visiting Researcher from EPFL in Sarkar Lab) and Ben Kew  demonstrate how a powerful combination of tribology, rheology, adsorption using QCM-D and proteomics can help us quantify plant protein-saliva interactions and decode the astringency mechanism in pea protein fractions (legumin-rich, vicilin-rich and albumin-rich fractions) perceived by a trained sensory panel. Results show that albumin-rich fraction although more soluble was significantly more astringent than the other globulin fractions - which was related to specific protein-saliva interaction forming thicker and rigid film on salivary conditioning film-coated sensors. To read more, please check this open access paper in Food hydrocolloids, Volume 149, Article No. 109489: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2023.109489