Membrane filtration and isoelectric precipitation technological approaches for the preparation of novel, functional and sustainable protein isolate from lentils

Isoelectric precipitation and ultrafiltration were investigated for their potential to produce protein products from lentils. Higher protein concentrations were obtained when ultrafiltration was used (> 90%), whereas isoelectric precipitation resulted in higher contents of dietary fibre and some minerals (i.e., sodium and phosphorus). Differences in the functional properties between the two ingredients were found as the isoelectric precipitated ingredient showed lower protein solubilities over the investigated pH range (from 3 to 9) which can be linked to the slightly higher hydrophobicity values (2688.7) and total sulfhydryl groups (23.9 µM/g) found in this sample. In contrast, the protein ingredient obtained by ultrafiltration was superior with regard to its solubility (48.3%; pH 7), fat-binding capacity (2.24 g/g), water holding capacity (3.96 g/g), gelling properties (11%; w/w), and foam-forming capacity (69.6%). The assessment of the environmental performance showed that both LPIs exhibited promising properties and low carbon footprints in comparison to traditional dairy proteins.