Securing Food Proteins: From by-Products to Functional Ingredient

With an expected growth of the world population to above 9 billion (2050), and subsequent increasing demand for high nutritional foods, there will be an enormous pressure on future food production systems to fulfil this demand. The protein supply is in this respect most critical, not only for human consumption but also for feed applications. Plant proteins are more sustainable and cost effective than animal proteins; (partly) replacing animal protein in existing products with (new) plant protein ingredients, or developing new plant protein-based products, is an effective approach in making more protein available. Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (RuBisCO) is the most abundant protein in the world and is located in green leaves; however, the majority of plant proteins currently used in food and feed are plant-storage proteins purified from seeds. RuBisCO is of potential interest for human consumption due to its high nutritional value, illustrated by the high amount of essential amino acids closely matching the recommendations by the FAO/WHO; in particular, lysine- and sulphur-containing amino acids – regarded as critical in low-meat diets – are present at high concentrations in RuBisCO.