Novel nutrient dense quinoa fractions: physical, functional, thermal and rheological characterisation for potential industry application.

Quinoa is known for its unique nutritional characteristics and contains good quality protein and fat along
with appreciable amount of starch, dietary fibre and micronutrients. The fractionation facilitated the separation
of the botanical components of the grain which were found to be rich in specific nutrients. The proteinand
fat-rich fraction (PFRF) projected 2.15 times protein and 2.74 times fat, while fibre-rich fraction (FRF)
showed 2.35 times fibre content as compared to quinoa whole grain. Starch-rich fraction (SRF) with
82.41% starch was lower in protein content. FRF showed higher water holding capacity compared with
other quinoa samples where bulk density was reported highest in PFRF fraction (670 kg per m3). These
fractions showed variation in their gelatinisation enthalpy for the thermal properties. Foaming and emulsion
properties were significantly impacted by the composition of the fractions and varied at different pH. The
apparent viscosity was recorded highest for FRF, where SRF was lowest. At varied temperatures tested, the
exhibited behaviour of all samples was found to be non-Newtonian in nature. Present study concludes that
quinoa physical fractionation produced novel nutrient dense fractions with unique techno-functional features
and has potential to be explored for food product development as independent functional ingredient.