Pulses Protein Concentrates and Isolates as Stand-Alone Plant-Based Egg Replacers: An Explorative Study of Their Functional Properties and Technological Effect in Pancakes

The growing interest in the replacement of eggs by the food industry is driven by many factors, including consumer demand, allergen reduction, improved food safety, healthier nutritional profiles, easier handling and storage, improved functionality, and environmental sustainability. Egg replacement represents a challenge for the bakery industry since their substitution implies emulsifying, coagulating, binding, and bubble-entrapping capacity losses. For this purpose, pulses can mimic the functional properties of animal-derived ingredients like oil- and water-holding, solubility, gelling, foaming, and emulsion properties. The objectives of this work were to study the physicochemical and functional properties of pulse protein concentrates and isolates (PPCIs) from different plant origins (namely, chickpeas, peas, mung beans, soy, lentils, and broad beans) to replace the egg in pancake formulations. The protein concentrates and isolate from pulses have been characterized by their water- and oil-holding capacity, solubility, gelling, foaming, and emulsifying properties. Then, the pancakes were studied for their textural, chemical-physical, and colorimetric properties. The protein concentrates differed from the isolates, especially in the Water Solubility Index and the swelling power, while the isolates were characterized for the foaming capacity, the oil-binding capacity, the water-holding capacity, and the minimum gelling concentration. Overall, the soy concentrates better mimic egg functionalities compared to the control pancake, especially for the volume and height properties and Consistency Index of the batters. Using soy concentrate as a "stand-alone" ingredient for egg replacement represents an interesting solution since it is available on the market, has a clean label, and is environmentally sustainable compared to eggs, even though it could represent an insidious allergen for the food industry.