OBTAINING AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DESALKALINED/DEBITTERING WHITE LUPIN FLOUR (Lupinus albus) BY REACTIVE EXTRUSION
Lupinus albus, alkaloids, proteins, processing, response surface.
Lupines are nutrient-rich legumes with a high protein content, which are already being used in other countries for human consumption, but with limitations due to their toxic alkaloid contents, which in most of them exceed the maximum allowed of 200 mg of alkaloids per kg of food. The current processes used to reduce the alkaloid content in lupines are very time-consuming processes (2 to 5 days), laborious, expensive, with a high demand for water, and some even with the loss of nutrients. Thus, it is believed that reactive extrusion, as it is a fast, efficient, economically, and biologically viable methodology, may be a methodology capable of reducing the toxicity of lupines, as well as preserving nutritional qualities, in a minimum processing time. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop and characterize an efficient processing method for white lupine, by reactive extrusion, in order to eliminate/reduce the alkaloid content present in it and to evaluate the effects of processing on the physicochemical quality of the product. It is expected to obtain an efficient, low-cost method, with minimal processing time, as well as desalted/debittered products with good physicochemical and nutritionally safe qualities.