Résumé
Infant formulas (IF) are the only source of nutrition for infants when breastfeeding is not possible. Usually, IF are spray-dried to a powder form and include cow milk proteins as well as whey protein concentrate. In the future, plant proteins could be an interesting alternative to the use of animal proteins for nutritional, functional and sustainable concerns. The objective of this work was to study the influence of the partial substitution of whey protein concentrate by plant proteins on the functional properties and the digestibility of IF. For this purpose, proteins from pea, faba bean, rice and potato replaced half of the proteins in plant-based IF and where compared to a reference IF based on whey proteins. The digestibility of these IF, manufactured at pilot scale then at semi-industrialscale, was assessed through in vitro digestion simulating infant physiological conditions using static and dynamic models. Although all IF showed a balanced nutritional profile compared to the infant needs, it was demonstrated that the protein source had a great impact on IF properties. Indeed, solubility and viscosity limits observed for rice and potato IF affected their manufacturing as well as their digestibility. On the contrary, pea and faba bean IF showed physicochemical properties and protein nutritional quality very close to the reference. These promising results highlight future innovation possibilities in infant nutrition field. However, they need to be validated at the real industrial scale and extended through in vivo studies.
Source: http://www.theses.fr/2019NSARB327
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