Modulation of lentil antinutritional properties using non-thermal mediated processing techniques – A review

Abstract

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) occupies a key position in the plant protein-based vegetarian diet. Being an excellent source of human nutrition, potential applications of lentils as a food source has not yet been explored scientifically due to their lower digestibility, presence of anti-nutritional constituents, and poor cooking characteristics. Commonly used lentil processing techniques involving thermal treatment have been extensively overworked, however, since they are associated with various undesirable changes, thus, alternative non-thermal processing techniques have been gaining increased research attention. This paper reviews the current knowledge and recent findings on the effect of treatment conditions on anti-nutrient compositions of lentils, using various non-thermal processing techniques such as milling, soaking, elicitation, germination, fermentation, high-pressure processing, radiation processing, ultrafiltration and isoelectric precipitation, and ultrasonication followed by understanding their underlying mechanisms. To exploit the potential of lentils to harness the emerging global demand of plant proteins, these non-thermal techniques are being extensively researched along with the changes associated their anti-nutritional profiles. Based on the review of present literature, it can be concluded that non-thermal processing would be an effective way to increase the digestibility of lentil nutrients with minimal change to lentil antinutrient composition, thereby enabling the consumers to even utilize the health benefits of these antinutrients.