Volume 46, Issue 9 e14199
REVIEW

A review of thermosensitive antinutritional factors in plant-based foods

Xin Kong

Xin Kong

College of Food and Health, National Soybean Processing Industry Technology Innovation Center, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Engineering and Technology Research Center of Food Additives, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China

Contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, ​Investigation, Writing - original draft

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You Li

Corresponding Author

You Li

College of Food and Health, National Soybean Processing Industry Technology Innovation Center, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Engineering and Technology Research Center of Food Additives, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China

Correspondence

You Li and Xinqi Liu, Department of Food Quality and Safety, College of Food and Health, Beijing Technology and Business University, No 33, Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100048, China.

Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing - review & editing

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Xinqi Liu

Corresponding Author

Xinqi Liu

College of Food and Health, National Soybean Processing Industry Technology Innovation Center, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Engineering and Technology Research Center of Food Additives, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, China

Correspondence

You Li and Xinqi Liu, Department of Food Quality and Safety, College of Food and Health, Beijing Technology and Business University, No 33, Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100048, China.

Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Contribution: Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing - review & editing

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First published: 02 May 2022
Citations: 24

Abstract

Legumes and cereals account for the vast proportion of people's daily intake of plant-based foods. Meanwhile, a large number of antinutritional factors in legumes and cereals hinder the body absorption of nutrients and reduce the nutritional value of food. In this paper, the antinutritional effects, determination, and passivation methods of thermosensitive antinutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectin were reviewed to provide theoretical help to reduce antinutritional factors in food and improve the utilization rate of plant-based food nutrition. Since trypsin inhibitors and lectin have been more extensively studied and reviewed previously, the review mainly focused on urease and lipoxygenase. This review summarized the information of thermosensitive antinutritional factors, trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectin, in cereals and legumes. The antinutritional effects, and physical and chemical properties of trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectin were introduced. At the same time, the research methods for the detection and inactivation of these four antinutritional factors were also summarized in the order of research conducted time. The rapid determination and inactivation of antinutrients will be the focus of attention for the food industry in the future to improve the nutritional value of food. Exploring what structural changes could passivation technologies bring to antinutritional factors will provide a theoretical basis for further understanding the mechanisms of antinutritional factor inactivation.

Practical applications

Antinutritional factors in plant-based foods hinder the absorption of nutrients and reduce the nutritional value of the food. Among them, thermosensitive antinutritional factors, such as trypsin inhibitors, urease, lipoxygenase, and lectins, have a high proportion among the antinutritional factors. In this paper, we investigate thermosensitive antinutritional factors from three perspectives: the antinutritional effect of thermosensitive antinutritional factors, determination, and passivation methods. The current passivation methods for thermosensitive antinutritional factors revolve around biological, physical, and chemical aspects, and their elimination mechanisms still need further research, especially at the protein structure level. Reducing the level of antinutritional factors in the future food industry while controlling the loss of other nutrients in food is a goal that needs to be balanced. This paper reviews the antinutritional effects of thermosensitive antinutritional factors and passivation methods, expecting to provide new research ideas to improve the nutrient utilization of food.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.

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