Abstract: Plant proteins are becoming more popular due to their health benefits and sustainability. Unlike animal proteins, plant proteins such as canola proteins have low solubility and inferior functionality. The current study utilized alkaline electro-activation (EA) to graft whey proteins with canola proteins to create new composite soluble proteins with superior functionality. In order to accomplish this, sweet whey powder was used to modify canola proteins as a low-cost source of animal protein. Canola protein alone (C) and whey/canola protein mixed suspensions (CW) were treated in an alkalizing electro-activation reactor for 60 minutes at 750 mA current and then naturalized to neutral pH.It was found that the alkaline EA treatment was very effective in the functionality improvement of the canola protein alone solution and their mixtures with whey. The molecular and physicochemical studies revealed that the presence of whey in canola protein solution caused a structural interaction between canola proteins and whey proteins through the formation of disulfide bonds and other covalent and noncovalent interactions, leading to the development of new composite proteins with superior solubility and functional properties than canola alone. Surprisingly, while untreated canola protein showed a protein solubility of less than 25%, poor foaming capacity, and emulsifying activity, the EA-treated canola/whey mixture showed a protein solubility of approximately 100%, a foaming capacity of 300%, and the ability to create emulsions that were stable for 30 days of storage. The gelation experiments showed that the EA-treated canola protein and whey/canola protein samples had a superior capacity to develop an integrated gel structure with higher mechanical and rheological properties and improved water-holding capacity compared to the untreated samples. This study showed that the alkaline EA treatment can be used as an in situ alkalinization method to enhance the solubility and functional properties of canola proteins and their mixture with whey.
