Chapter 11 - Peanut Composition, Flavor and Nutrition

Abstract

Peanuts are a globally important oilseed valued as a source of high-quality cooking oil. Peanuts are also appreciated worldwide as an affordable, flavorful, and nutritionally dense snack food, while also serving as a primary ingredient for peanut butter, confections, and nutritional bars, among other finished products. While amenable to a variety of processes, peanuts are commonly roasted and the unique, pleasant flavor of roasted peanuts is a primary driver in consumption. As a whole food and ingredient, peanuts are nutritionally dense, for example, providing the highest protein content of all commonly consumed snack nuts, serving as a rich source of heart-healthy, monounsaturated oil, and also providing a variety of healthy micronutrients and bioactive compounds that are becoming increasingly better understood with modern detection technologies and nutritional investigations. Research over the past century has provided a foundation for understanding the underlying chemical composition of peanut, and advances over recent years with modern instrumentation continue to improve insights into this chemistry and the various chemical and physical reactions and mechanisms responsible for peanut quality. Accordingly, this chapter focuses on advances in collecting chemical/physical data on peanuts and analyzing this information in the context of peanut quality, with an emphasis on delivering optimal flavor and nutrition. Beyond proximates, peanuts are also a rich source of various micronutrients, both water soluble and oil soluble, and these will be reviewed.