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Nutrient bioavailability and application of sprouted crops in food products
J. HAN (1) (1) Food Processing Development Centre / Government of Alberta, Leduc, AB, Canada.

Unique flavour of dry pulses has been detrimental to increasing the human consumption of pulses in North America despite the excellent nutritive values. The partial germination (pargem) process has been known to reduce the unique beany flavour in other pulses. The objectives of the project were to evaluate and optimize the pargem process, to evaluate protein qualities and functional properties, and to develop and evaluate prototype food products utilizing pargem pea flours. Two partially germinated yellow peas were produced using under two processing conditions: i.e. pargem I using a short germination time and high drying temperature and pargem II using a long germination time and low drying temperature. Untreated and pre-cooked pea flour were also included in the study for comparison. Protein qualities, in vitro and in vivo, found that the processing method was without a major influence on the indices of in vivo protein quality. In general, the protein in the peas was highly digestible (90%). The pargem I exhibited a significantly lower PER score of 1.71 and the adjusted PER values ranged from 1.26 (pargem I) to 0.54 (untreated). Product prototypes were developed to evaluate the feasibility of using pea flours and were then evaluated using consumer acceptability methods. In general, pargem flours worked well in formulations in selected product types, e.g. spaghetti, extruded snacks, cakes, tortillas, pancakes, and pizza crust. The products containing pea flours exhibited darker colour, crispness and slightly harder texture depending on pea flour inclusion levels. However the products also have higher fibre and protein contents contributed from the pea flours. Sensory analysis showed significantly higher aroma and flavour than control indicating that pargem flour has the potential to be used in the production of selected food products.