Enhancing nutritional value and protein solubility in oat-based drinks

Plant-based drinks made from cereal and legumes are becoming increasingly popular and are often seen as an alternative to milk as well as a contributor to a more sustainable diet. Even though oats contain up to 20% protein, this is not recovered in oat-based drinks (OBD), as native oat protein primarily exhibits hydrophobic behavior, and is therefore not naturally extracted into water-based drinks but lost as sidestream. The aim of the PhD project is to increase the water-solubility of oat protein in dehulled oat and oat flour by known mechanical, enzymatic, microbial and chemical processes. Previous studies on isolated oat protein and oat protein concentrates demonstrated that processes with structural disruption (deamidation or ultrasound) or protein degradation (proteolyze by protease, germination or fermentation) increased protein water-solubility, but this effect has not been verified on dehulled oat kernels or oat flour, which is commonly used for OBD production. The project hypothesizes that modifying native oat protein structure towards increased hydrophilic behavior will result in increased protein water-extractability, which finally will increase the protein content in the final OBD. Further, the knowledge and results are expected to be transferable to use in food production with other cereals and legumes, as plant proteins are comparable in structure and solubility behavior