Sunflower flour as a rich source of high quality proteins

Abstract

Since there is an increasing demand for plant proteins as an adequate and less expensive alternative for animal proteins, the main objective of this study was to investigate influence of two technological processes on yield and quality of produced sunflower flour. Sunflower flour has a remarkable potential as a functional component for food and feed, so achieving of appropriate emulsifying properties, foam capacities and other functional characteristics was of special importance in the presented investigation. First method, combination of sunflower kernel cold pressing and supercritical fluid extraction with CO2 gave better product (flour I) than electrostatic separation of hull from sunflower meal (flour II). Flour I had significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher content of protein than flour II (58.75 percent compared to 53.1 percent) and better functional properties.