Ohmic heating as an emerging technology for the improvement of the technno-functional properties of common bean flour

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important part of the diet in Mexico due to its high availability and low cost, which has also been associated with preventing and reducing non-communicable diseases. Due to this, the application of processing technologies has grown to improve the nutritional and bioactive profile of beans, thereby increasing the usefulness of beans being used as flour, where the functional properties depend mainly on proteins and carbohydrates. Therefore, the processing of the raw material directly influences the techno-functional properties. The objective of this work was to demonstrate the advantage of ohmic heating over traditional cooking in bean flours, in their techno-functional characteristics and anti-nutritional factors. The results of ohmic heating did not show significant differences compared to traditional cooking; however, the condition at 110 ° C (10 and 15 min) obtained higher values in foaming capacity, emulsifying, and viscosity.

On the other hand, there were no differences in the concentration of soluble proteins and an increase of 32 and 41% of resistant starch. Likewise, ohmic treatment reduced trypsin inhibitors by 25.42 to 57.44%, did not modify the protein solubility profile, and increased resistant starch from 6.89% (crude) to 9.73% (OH). The results suggest that bean processing by ohmic heating can be an alternative to conventional treatments, in addition to reducing processing time, with greater energy efficiency, not presenting nutrient leaching, with a prebiotic potential.