An innovative dual-driven strategy to accelerate and strengthen TGase-induced pea protein gelation via static magnetic field and arabinoxylan pretreatments

Abstract

The precise modulation of pea protein isolate (PPI) structure to improve its gelation properties has garnered increasing research interest. However, conventional thermal treatments often result in undesirable side effects. In this study, a novel non-thermal pretreatment strategy was constructed by integrating static magnetic field (SMF) exposure with arabinoxylan (AX) addition, resulting in a 69.17 % reduction in TGase-induced gelation time and a 3.46-fold increase in mechanical strength. Multidimensional structural analysis revealed that SMF promoted protein unfolding and hydrophobic exposure, while AX acted as a bridging scaffold and spatial filler, increasing molecular proximity. This conformational pre-activation accelerated subsequent crosslinking by facilitating hydrophobic interactions and disulfide bond formation, resulting in a denser microstructure and more ordered secondary structure. By optimizing AX concentration and SMF duration, a more stable crosslinking network, a shorter gelation time, and significantly improved mechanical strength and water-holding capacity were achieved. Moreover, the modified PPI gel could serve as a replacement for milk powder, achieving comparable performance to milk powder-based ice cream in viscosity, overrun, hardness, and melting behavior. This indicated that SMF-AX co-regulation could function as a promising strategy for producing high-quality protein gel-based products.