Felix Roosen-Runge

Proteins from pea seeds could be a future source of a balanced, more sustainable plant-based nutrition. To reach this goal, alternatives for typical food products of animal origin need to be developed. While proteins in animals are abundant in fluids, and thus ready to be processed, plants store proteins mainly in compact and dry conditions in grains, which makes fluid processing complicated. This project aims for an understanding how to in a first step optimize the extraction of proteins from the grains without destroying their structure, so that in a second step structures with desired properties can be formed. Typical examples would include novel plant-based food products with similar resemblance and mouth feel as dairy products. We will combine special solvents for grain dissolution with advanced characterization methods, to understand the principles of structure formation. We will use established concepts from soft materials to guide our investigations towards future food products.