The rise in popularity of vegetarian and plant-based diets has led to extensive research into plant-based whipped creams. Whipped cream is an oil-in-water emulsion that creates foam through whipping, stabilizing the foam with proteins and fats. Pea protein is an excellent emulsifier and foaming agent among plant-based proteins, but its application in whipped cream is currently limited.
The objective of a Korean study published in Food Science and Preservation journal was to investigate the quality characteristics of plant-based whipped cream made with ultrasonicated pea protein. The whipped creams were evaluated based on their quality characteristics. A commercially available dairy whipped cream (CON) was used as a control. Plant-based creams were evaluated using pea protein solution, cocoa butter, and canola oil to produce un-ultrasonicated pea protein whipped cream (PP) and ultrasonicated pea protein whipped cream (UPP) at 360 W for 6 min. UPP significantly reduced whipping time and foam drainage compared with CON and PP, resulting in significantly increased overrun, fat destabilization, and hardness.
Optical microscopy showed that UPP had smaller fat globules and bubble size than PP. The fat globules of UPP and CON were mostly below 5 mum, whereas those of PP were distributed at 5-20 mum. Finally, ultrasonication significantly improved the overrun, foam drainage, fat destabilization, and hardness of UPP, which are significant quality characteristics of whipped creams. Therefore, ultrasonicated plant-based pea protein whipped cream is believed to be a viable alternative to dairy whipped cream.
