A digital art icon of green peas in a pea pod, representing plant-based meat. Plant-Based

Optimisation of crops to enhance their food functionality traits for smart protein applications

Crop development is the first stage of the plant-based value chain, which offers upstream solutions to tailor crops for smart protein applications. Selective breeding for crop traits that can improve its protein content, functionality, and organoleptic properties is a potential area for future exploration.

Production platform
  • A digital art icon of green peas in a pea pod, representing plant-based meat. Plant-Based
Value chain segment
  • R&D
Technology sector
  • Crop development

For more information, please see the following resources: 

Previous GFI-funded research related to this topic:

Current challenges

To date, only 30 plant species are being utilised to provide nearly 95% of all plant-based proteins. Moreover, only ~8% of plant-based protein sources have been explored for their use in plant-based meat, eggs, and dairy products. These include soy, pea, and wheat gluten. More recently, mung beans and chickpeas have started gaining relevance as ingredients in plant-based alternatives. India is known for its crop biodiversity, with crops such as millets, pulses, and legumes offering huge promise to diversify raw materials for the alternative protein sector. The utilisation of indigenous crops as protein sources for plant-based foods is particularly significant, as conventional protein-rich agricultural commodities such as pulses are prone to price surges and volatility, owing to a greater demand for these products. Therefore, this is the right time to explore unconventional sources of protein.

Developing crops for plant-based meat applications will address the high cost and tedious processes associated with downstream processing. It can also improve the sensory and nutritional profiles of plant-based meat products. As GFI’s plant protein primer and GFI APAC’s Asian Cropportunities report emphasise, many plant protein sources remain underutilised and underexplored. Unveiling the potential of novel crop sources could aid in developing innovative products for many different cultures, which would be highly relevant to India with its wide diversity in culinary practices. Moreover, crop optimisation research can promote agricultural biodiversity and facilitate the use of India’s indigenous crops as protein sources for smart protein products.

Proposed solutions

There are many untapped protein-rich crops in India. For instance, amaranth is rich in protein (14%) and can be grown easily in any environment due to its climate-resilient nature. It contains all 9 essential amino acids at a total concentration of 29.67 g/100 g protein, with lysine being the major essential amino acid, followed by histidine and methionine. Foxtail millet, little millet, and bajra are good sources of protein with a balanced amino acid composition containing 50% more methionine and cysteine content than in pulses, but deficient in lysine.

Breeding for selective target traits has been employed in the agricultural sector since the time of plant domestication. Currently, crop breeding through various techniques is extensively carried out for objectives such as improved yield, abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, and physical uniformity that facilitates automated mechanical harvesting. Future research should focus on breeding crops to tailor them for applications in the smart protein sector. This would encompass breeding for traits that can improve protein content, functionality, and intrinsic organoleptic properties. Improved crop varieties with more protein content and enhanced functionality can be developed by leveraging the prior knowledge of germplasm accessions.

Functional properties that could potentially be enhanced by crop optimization are solubility, water holding capacity, gelation, coagulation, oil binding capacity, emulsification, foaming, and extrudability. Relevant organoleptic properties include neutral color and flavor. Nevertheless, these traits are inherently complex with possibly many genes having major and minor influence on the final phenotype. Further, these functional characteristics can also be dependent on the expression of genes underlying simpler traits, such as globulin-to-albumin ratio, legumin-to-vicilin ratio, protein charge, total protein content, protein structure at various levels, protein and non-protein interactions, and specific enzymatic activities. Hence, establishing specific breeding programs to optimize crops for plant-based meat, egg and dairy applications is highly relevant. 

In addition to the above, other traits could also be related to optimizing the crop for alternative protein applications. For instance, extractability of protein is an important aspect in establishing a crop as a protein source for product development and commercial applications. Crop breeding approaches to obtain larger seeds and a lower level of hull per pound of seeds would help in enhancing the extraction efficiency. Moreover, breeding for a uniform seed size and shape would also have a positive influence on the ingredient processing steps, such as maintaining consistent soaking times. 

In recent times, plant breeders have realized the importance of novel crop traits such as flavor and functionality. This is relevant as the beany odor and bitter taste of millets and pulses are the major apprehensions while incorporating their protein fraction as an ingredient in meat, dairy and egg analogues. Generally, secondary metabolites in pulses are responsible for the bitter taste (saponins and alkaloids) and beany odor (aldehydes, ketones and alcohols). These secondary metabolites are stimulated by enzymes, such as lipoxygenase or free radicals in the field. A recent study has shown that both the aroma profile and functional properties (flavor–binding capacity and protein architectures) of yellow pea protein isolates have a strong dependence on the cultivar type. Currently, phenotyping of flavor traits is expensive and hence it is beyond the scope of most breeding endeavors. However, the future collaborative research efforts of plant breeders and food scientists can bridge the existing gaps and open up the path for a sustainable food system. Therefore, a number of characteristics besides protein content could possibly have a greater impact on functionality, despite that high crop yield and protein content are the conventional foci of crop optimization interventions.

Successful proposals are expected to answer the following key questions: