Pilot Plant Production of an Edible Alfalfa Protein Concentrate

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the development of a pilot plant scale wet fractionation process to obtain an edible leaf protein concentrate from alfalfa juice by the fractionated recovery of the chloroplastic and cytoplasmatic proteins. The green pigmented fraction is recovered at room temperature by employing an organic polyelectrolyte, while the edible white proteins are coagulated by acidification to pH 4.0. The pilot plant and working conditions are described together with the chemical composition of the final products. Some functional properties of cytoplasmatic protein concentrate are also reported. Since the whole process takes place at room temperature the cytoplasmatic protein concentrate shows good functional properties especially with regard to its nitrogen solubility.