Protein Processing in Food and Bioproduct Manufacturing and Techniques for Analysis - Food and Industrial Bioproducts and Bioprocessing - page 83

3 Protein Processing in Food
and Bioproduct Manufacturing
and Techniques for Analysis
Joyce Irene Boye and Chockry Barbana
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Proteins and amino acids are the building blocks of life. They play a critical role as
components of blood, muscle, enzymes, hormones and hormone receptors. In addition
to their biological role in sustaining the functions of living organisms, proteins also
play important roles in foods providing taste, texture and flavor, which are essential criteria
for food selection. Due to their versatile functionality and complex molecular structure,
proteins have also been explored in many industrial applications. Some recent examples
include adhesives, protein plastics, gels, coating, additives and biomaterials. Protein scaf-
folds and cross-linked networks also hold much promise for use in the pharmaceutical
industry.
In nature, proteins exist as components of biological matrices with other compounds
such as lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, and other minor components. This composite
existence is ideal in foods, as it allows various sources of nutrients to be supplied at
the same time. In some instances, however, there are distinct advantages in separating
protein fractions in order to obtain enriched or purified fractions for specific food, nutra-
ceutical or industrial application. Thus, for sports nutrition as an example, there may be
the need for highly enriched protein beverages that quickly help to build and restore
muscle. Engineering of protein scaffolds for pharmaceutical applications may require
the use of highly purified proteins as raw materials for production. Preparation of simulated
meat products using plant proteins as meat analogs may also require the use of highly
purified protein sources.
This chapter provides an overview of the properties of food proteins and details some of
the techniques currently used for the extraction and purification of proteins from different
food sources. Protein processing for human food use is emphasized. However, most of the
described processes are also applicable for feed and other industrial and pharmaceutical
applications. As the purity and quality of extracted proteins have to be frequently assessed
to determine their suitability for different applications, the chapter also provides a summary
of some of the principal techniques used for analyzing the properties of proteins in food and
bioproduct manufacturing.