The nutritional value of oat milk beverages could surpass that of traditional dairy milk by adding more protein, researchers say. A Canterbury University team is experimenting with protein extracted from field peas.
Photo: AFP
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Protein extracted from field peas is a perfect fit for oat milk, Canterbury University food engineer Ken Morison tells Afternoons.
His students' research into the booming plant-based market is part of an early-stage venture which won this year's Food, Fibre and Agritech Supernode Challenge.
Morison says he has two PhD students working on the pea protein project. After successfully extracting protein from the plant, the next question is what to do with it.
“We thought, why not add it to oat milk? It was partly inspired by seeing some oat milk being bought in our household and looking at the label on it - it just didn't have that nutritional content. So, we've been producing it and looking at how we're going put it in oak milk and we're very encouraged by what we're finding.”
Adding pea protein to beverages isn’t without challenges, particularly when it comes to taste and texture, Morison says.
“Anyone who's vegetarian or vegan and has tried pea protein as a sports drink will know that it's not a particularly nice product.
“It's really chalky and the flavour’s not particularly good. And one of our challenges was to get over that and produce a product that wasn't chalky and that had a decent flavour profile. So, the thing that we're doing is producing a plant protein that can be added to oat milk when there's not many available that are suitable for that.”
The researchers’ breakthrough came when they used a process to extract protein from yellow split peas on a small-scale basis.
They now plan to source field peas from farmers to upscale that process, Morison says.
“These are dried on the field, effectively, and harvested dry, and the farmers will sometimes dry it as a human food, but sometimes as a crop for animals as well."
“With a dried yellow pea or a lentil, it has a reasonably neutral flavour. And that's one of the real advantages together with the processing we're doing. Because when you add it to something like oat milk, you don't want to turn it into pea-flavoured milk. It still [should have a] reasonably neutral flavour.”
The researchers may have succeeded in making a pea protein that's much more soluble and even dissolves completely.
A traditional criticism of oat milk has been that it needs a really good shake before drinking, Morison says.
“That was one of the problems ... There's a little bit of starch and perhaps some of the calcium settled. One of the advantages of oat though is the starch is very fine - it's one of the finest starches…. So that does have an advantage in that it doesn't completely settle but yes, it will.
“We’ll do some tests to see whether adding pea protein makes a difference. It should make a slight difference and make it slightly more viscous, so it should hold up the starch a little bit better.”
Once this pea protein is added, oat milk will compete nutritionally with traditional dairy milk, Morison says.
“We know that getting up to the 3 percent protein is no trouble. I think we can get it up to 5 percent protein, so that’ll be higher than milk and without any impact on the flavour.”
“So you've then got a milk - call it a milk, call it a beverage, if you want to - that's got the carbohydrates. They add some oil into it, canola oil or something like that, and then it's got the protein. So, it's got all those food groups in it that actually starts matching dairy milk."
The oat milk sector is understandably interested in Morison's research and talks are currently underway.
“We've been talking to them. I'd have to say they're excited enough. I think what we're trying to do will fit beautifully within their process. So I think it's a great, great fit.
“We're hoping within a month or so we'll actually have some real products and some oat milk that’s been fortified and we can produce that food here at Lincoln University. And we've got some plans to do that.”