Development of chickpea beverages through enzymatic treatments: from rapid visco analyzer to pilot plant production

Abstract

Plant-based beverage production generally involves enzymatic treatments to overcome technological challenges. Thus, this research aimed to evaluate the potential use of the Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) to simulate pilot plant (PP) conditions and determine the enzyme(s) and enzyme-concentrations to be used in PP for beverage production using chickpea flour. α-Amylase-TA, maltogenase-MA and amyloglucosidase-AMG were tested individually and in combination at three concentrations. Chickpea suspensions with 3% protein, equivalent to milk contribution, were produced at laboratory scale in RVA while simulating PP. Highest viscosity reductions was obtained with the highest enzymatic activity (TA.3 = 1.21 CU/g flour; MA.3 = 0.15 CU/g flour; AMG.3 = 0.69 mg of glucose released/g flour). TA was the most effective in reducing final viscosity and increasing free sugars, particularly combined with TA + MA + AMG. RVA findings were validated in PP-production using TA.3 + MA.3 + AMG.3. Viscosity decreased from 50,697 ± 8,907 cP observed in the control to 4,505 ± 171 cP when using TA.3 + MA.3 + AMG.3. Due to homogenization, the whiteness index was higher for PP beverages (67–71) than for RVA suspensions (65–67). This study demonstrates the potential of using RVA as a tool to optimize enzyme concentrations for chickpea beverage production and the successful scale-up of the process to PP-level.