Avaliação comparativa entre proteínas de origens vegetal e animal: um estudo espectral e textural

Abstract

Animal proteins differ from plant proteins basically in their amino acid composition, so that proteins from animals, more specifically from meat, offer all amino acids not produced by the human body. On the other hand, agricultural activities linked to food production are among the biggest responsible for environmental impacts, since the production of animal protein demands, in addition to large physical spaces for the disposal of animals, high amounts of water resources, contributing to gases related to the greenhouse effect, which has been severely discussed as it causes important climatic changes. Considering the healthy aspect and philosophies referring to different views on animal life, the food trade has been influenced by an important increase in the consumption of proteins derived from vegetables, resulting in a new market dynamic, since a few time ago the consumption of protein derived from animal sources was practically unanimous. Although certain consumers restrict their protein consumption according to its origins, such as the vegetarians and vegans, protein supplements from both animal and vegetable sources are commercialized in most cases as a finely divided powder, so that the certification of origin is performed from characterization analysis which generally depends on expensive techniques, reagents, sample preparation and use considerable analysis time. Thus, this study aims to compare commercial samples of proteins from animal and plant sources using information from near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and textural parameters, obtained by a texture profile analysis (TPA), using the chemometric tools of principal component analysis (PCA) to find out the wavelengths assigned to the different protein sources, and the common dimensions analysis (ComDim). The results indicated that, regarding TPA analysis, proteins of animal origin are similar in adhesiveness and springiness, while those of plant origin were similar in cohesiveness, chewability, gumminess, hardness, and resilience. When evaluating the NIR and TPA techniques together using ComDim, it was observed that the chewability and gumminess parameters are essential to differentiate between samples of vegetable proteins from those of animal origin, and these parameters are presented as related to regions of the NIR spectrum between 900 - 1130 nm, 1190 - 1300 nm and 1450 - 1700 nm. Thus, if there is an interest in differentiating commercial protein samples with respect to the source, these NIR regions can be used, and are related to the chewability and gumminess of proteins.