Strategy for the prediction, control and optimizing of the functional properties of food proteins; using statistical and chemometric tools

Abstract

Proteins have functional properties that govern their behavior in foods during processing, storage and consumption. Proteins can have high nutritional quality and not have functional properties suitable for incorporation into determined food systems. Furthermore, a desirable functional attribute for an additive may be undesirable for everyone else.This chapter describes the design of a new strategy to predict, control and optimize the functional parameters of food proteins hydrolyzed or not, using chemometrics tools. The starting material consists of proteins whose functional properties are desired to modify. Functional properties (e.g. emulsifying and foaming properties); can be simultaneously evaluated by an Experimental Statistical Design, Response Surface Graphics and Multiple Linear Regressions.This strategy expands the applications of food proteins and allows the following facilities: - assess interactions between variables of multivariate systems, - evaluate the dependence between functional parameters, - optimize the additive production with tailor-made functional properties for different food systems.