Enhancement of chickpea protein functionalities through higher-intensity pulsed electric field: Insights into protein aggregations and structural changes

As a promising non-thermal processing technique, pulsed electric field (PEF) is widely used for protein modification, including whey, soy , and pea proteins . However, the treatment parameters are crucial to produce desired modification effects, for example, previous PEF treatment parameters have been found to yield an undesired effect and poor functional performance of the chickpea protein (CP). A possible reason is the rigid structure of CP. In this study, we applied a higher electric field intensity (up to 60 kV/cm) in PEF treatment to modify CP, which is higher than the commonly used values (10–30 kV/cm). It was found that PEF treatment at 60 kV/cm effectively weakened the aggregation behavior of CP, with the particle size decreasing by 60%. PEF treatment also led to unfolding and exposure of internal hydrophobic cavities of CP, which contributed to the improvement of CP functional properties, e.g. water solubility doubling, foaming ability increasing from 106% to 160%, and emulsion stability increasing by 2.7 times. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis further confirmed that PEF modification exhibited threshold-dependent behavior, with higher electric field intensities producing more pronounced effects. These findings provide theoretical support for using high-intensity PEFas a promising strategy for protein modification and offer new perspectives for the application of PEF technology in the food industry. • High-intensity pulsed electric field (PEF) efficiently modify chickpea protein (CP). • First study to apply ultra-high intensity PEF (60 kV/cm) for protein modification. • PEF at 60 kV/cm significantly alert CP structure and reduce aggregation. • Functionalities of CP improved, including solubility, foaming, and emulsifying.