Acid gelation of high-concentrated casein micelles and pea proteins mixed systems

The increased demand for plant-based products brings a new challenge to the food industry. Especially, proteins from soy, chickpea, and pea are being highly demanded as food ingredients. However, they still present some drawbacks such as poor techno-functional properties and remarkable beany flavor that hamper their wider application. Contrarily, milk products such as yogurt and cheeses are highly consumed and accepted worldwide. Therefore, the association of plant proteins, such as pea with milk proteins is an interesting strategy to incorporate more plant-based proteins into people's diet. However, this strategy can largely impact gel formation and final structure. This study aims to develop mixed casein micelles (CMs) and pea proteins gel at high concentrations in four protein ratios, 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, and 20:80 by acidification. The effect of a thermal treatment before gelation was also evaluated. The replacement of CMs for pea proteins disturbed the gel formation at the beginning of acidification, demand more time to increase the G*, being this effect more pronounced as more casein is replaced in the system. Despite of this effect, the final gel elasticity was higher in the presence of pea proteins for the ratios 80:20 and 60:40, probably due to the formation of pea network. It is hypothesized that pea proteins can form a network when surrounded by CMs, however, CMs restrict pea proteins aggregation. This study describes that the final characteristics of mixed gels can be tailored by changing protein ratios and applying thermal treatment before acidification, opening the possibility for the development of innovative food products.