Lipid solutions from aqueous extraction of oilseeds

Abstract: The three primary components stored in oilseeds to fuel seedling growth are oils, proteins, and carbohydrates. The sustainability and valorization of co-products became priorities of the food industry. Simultaneous aqueous extraction of seed storage proteins and oleosomes (oilbodies) comes with benefits and challenges. The proposed talk will focus on the characteristics of ingredients from the aqueous extraction of oilseeds, especially sunflower and their use in food applications.

Toward the goal of replacing animal fat and tropical oils in food applications, aqueous oilseed processing yields at least two distinct constituents, such as proteins and oleosomes. Pre-processing of seeds, milling conditions, pH of the extraction medium, temperature and salt content are well known parameters affecting simultaneous extraction of oleosomes and proteins. Sunflower proteins produced from a co-stream of sunflower oleosome extraction process contain 50-85% protein content, depending on processing conditions.

Oleosomes are natural emulsions made of a triglyceride core surrounded by a monolayer of phospholipids that is embedded with proteins. To be utilized as a delivery mechanism, oleosomes can either be attached to hydrophilic components or loaded with hydrophobic materials. Depending on separation efficiency, industrially scaled-up sunflower oleosome preparations also contain oilseed storage proteins ( >0.5%), which provide additional functionality and stability. Sunflower oleosomes also have unique rheological properties and a particle size that varies between 1-3 µm depending on the extraction conditions. As a result, oleosomes add creaminess and mouthfeel to alt-dairy applications, mimicking milk fat globules. The creamy texture of sunflower oleosomes was achieved across various emulsion compositions of solids, lipid, and protein concentrations under different processing conditions. As sunflower oleosomes are natural oil-in-water emulsions with high lipid content ( >50%), they have the potential to replace animal fat or plant lipids in clean label formulations with fewer processing steps. This makes them unique among plant-based ingredients.