Yongfeng Ai

Background and Objectives: This study investigated how particle size influenced pasting and gelling behaviors of cereal flours across a wide range of heating temperatures. Hard wheat, soft wheat, oats, barley, and rye were milled into flours using 0.5‐, 1.0‐, or 2.0‐mm screens, and the resulting flours were subjected to heating over 95°C–140°C in a Rapid Visco Analyser. Findings: Within each cereal, damaged‐starch contents and water‐holding capacity of the flours generally decreased as the particle size increased. Overall, thermal properties as well as pasting and gelling behaviors of the flours from the same grain were not substantially influenced by the different particle sizes over the tested heating range. Across the five grain types, volume‐weighted mean particle sizes were only negatively correlated with the damaged‐starch contents ( r = −0.536, p < 0.05), whereas no significant correlations were observed for other functional properties. Conclusion: Thermal, pasting, and gelling properties of cereal flours were largely independent of particle size across 95°C–140°C heating, which could be related to their coarse particle structure. Significance and Novelty: This study revealed the impacts of particle size on the functional attributes of cereal flours at high heating temperatures, offering valuable insights for optimizing flour utilization in diverse products.

BACKGROUND: Increasing interest in incorporating pulses into human diets has increased demand for their fractionation into diverse food ingredients. Air classification has relatively low capital and operating costs, uses no water, and preserves the native protein structure. However, its efficiency in separating protein and starch is lower than that of wet fractionation. This study investigated seed germination of pea and faba bean for 24, 48, and 96 h as a pretreatment to improve the air classification efficiency of pulse flours into fine (protein‐rich) and coarse (starch‐rich) streams. RESULTS: Scanning electron microscopy revealed that germination disrupted the protein and fiber matrices surrounding starch granules in pea and faba bean seeds, improving subsequent air classification efficiency. Following 24–96 h of soaking and germination, the fine stream yield increased from 251 to 295 g kg⁻¹ for pea and from 274 to 364 g kg⁻¹ for faba bean. Protein retention in the fine stream – the proportion of total protein recovered – also increased, from 620 to 686 g kg⁻¹ for pea and from 702 to 882 g kg⁻¹ for faba bean, both at 48 h of germination. After 96 h, protein retention declined. In contrast, germination had no effect on the starch retention in the coarse stream. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, 48 h of germination of pea and faba bean seeds is sufficient to improve the air classification efficiency of the resulting pulse flours. © 2026 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the functional properties and in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) of air‐classified fine stream (i.e., protein concentrates) obtained from round pea, faba bean, and wrinkled pea that were pre‐treated by tempering and subsequent infrared (IR) heating prior to air classification. Due to the absence of effective modifications on protein and starch, the tempering did not influence the separation between these two major constituents during the air classification and exhibited negligible effects on the functional attributes and digestibility of the obtained fine stream, except for water‐holding capacity (WHC). IR pre‐treatment led to protein denaturation and starch gelatinization in round pea, faba bean, and wrinkled pea, thus showing some negative influence on the separation of protein and starch in the air classification. Although IR heating reduced the protein solubility of fine stream from 79.9%–83.4% to 24.0%–33.1% for the three pulses, this pre‐treatment did not considerably affect their particle morphologies and size distributions nor foaming and emulsifying properties. As a result of protein denaturation, IR heating enhanced WHC from 0.42–0.65 g/g to 1.82–1.98 g/g and IVPD from 78.6%–83.0% to 85.3%–86.7% for the three fine stream samples. IR heating can be utilized to pre‐treat different pulse seeds to diversify the techno‐functional attributes and enhance the digestibility of protein concentrates obtained through air classification.

Three faba bean genotypes, Fabelle, Malik, and Snowbird, possessing variations in seed quality traits and produced in different Canadian prairie locations in two growing years, were dry fractionated by air classification. Selected quality parameters of coarse and fine fractions useful for faba bean ingredient processing were assessed. Seed coat loss is higher for large‐seeded regular tannin genotype Malik than for the others. Genotype differences affected the protein content of dehulled flour and the fine fraction, with the low vicine/convicine (v and cv) containing genotype Fabelle providing higher levels (32.0%–35.5%) than the other two genotypes. Protein fractionation efficiency values showed that 50%–55% of seed protein can be shifted to the fine fraction, with high starting protein content resulting in higher protein concentration in the fine fraction. The coarse fraction (yield 70.3%–72.8%) provided 18.1%–20.2% protein‐containing starchy (64.4%–66.8%) FB ingredients for further use. Although phytates and v and cv tended to fractionate and shift to the fine fraction, concentrations of the most abundant minerals of dehulled FB seeds were similar to the levels in whole seed. FB starches and proteins of the three genotypes showed their typical characteristic properties with lesser effect from the growing environment. This study provides information on the diversity range of the products resulting from the dry fractionation of faba bean genotypes of varying quality traits and grown in different locations.

This study aimed to employ tempering and subsequent infrared (IR) heating as seed pre-treatments to enhance the functional properties and in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) of air-classified fine stream (i.e., protein concentrate) from round pea, faba bean, and wrinkled pea. Due to the absence of effective modifications on protein and starch, the tempering did not influence the separation between these two major constituents during the air classification and exhibited negligible effects on the functional attributes and digestibility of the obtained fine stream, except for water-holding capacity (WHC). As an efficient and short-time thermal method, IR pre-treatment led to protein denaturation and starch gelatinization in round pea, faba bean, and wrinkled pea, thus showing some negative influence on the separation of protein and starch in the air classification. Although IR heating reduced the protein solubility of fine stream from 79.9%-83.4% to 24.0%-33.1% for the three pulse varieties, this pre-treatment did not considerably affect their particle morphologies and size distributions nor foaming and emulsifying properties. As a result of protein denaturation, IR heating enhanced WHC from 0.42-0.65 g/g to 1.82-1.98 g/g and IVPD from 78.6%-83.0% to 85.3-86.7% for the three fine stream samples. IR heating can be utilized to pre-treat different pulse seeds to improve the techno-functional attributes and digestibility of protein concentrates from air classification.