Dry Fractionation for Sustainable Production of Functional, Nutritional and Palatable Grain Legume Protein Ingredients

Grain legumes such as pea, faba bean, lupin and soybean are an important protein source for the production of plant-based foods and thus facilitate the protein transition. For many food applications, the proteins are first isolated using conventional wet methods that are resource intensive. Dry fractionation processes are therefore developed to facilitate a more sustainable protein transition. This review discusses the status of dry fractionation of grain legumes to produce protein-rich ingredients for food production and how the use of these dry-enriched ingredients could be further enhanced. Dry fractionation includes dry milling and dry separation technologies which are first briefly described. There are different strategies to further improve the separation, which include pre-treatments and improving powder bulk behaviour. Pre- and post-treatments not only improve the functional properties of dry-enriched protein ingredients but also enhance the nutritional value of the ingredients and minimize off-flavours. Opportunities still exist to further optimise dry fractionation techniques and pre-treatments to increase the purity and yield. Finally, the use of dry-enriched fractions should be accelerated by development of 1) functionality-driven ingredient formulation strategies and 2) new physical post-modifications and food fermentation strategies to enhance functionality, nutritional value and taste of the ingredients to prepare attractive food products.