Ohmic Heating as an Emerging Technology for the Improvement of the Techno-Functional Properties of Common Bean Flour

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important food legumes because of its high availability and low cost. It has also been associated with preventing and reducing noncommunicable diseases. Because of this, the application of processing technologies has grown to improve common beans’ nutritional and bioactive profiles. The processing of the raw material directly influences its techno-functional properties. The objective of this work was to demonstrate the advantages of ohmic heating over traditional cooking on common bean flours in regard to their techno-functional characteristics and antinutritional factors. The results of ohmic heating did not show significant differences compared with traditional cooking; however, ohmic heating obtained higher values in foaming capacity and emulsifying. In addition, it did not modify the protein solubility profile and reduced trypsin inhibitors by 25.42 to 57.44%. This suggests that ohmic heating could be an alternative to conventional treatments and reducing processing time, with greater energy efficiency, not presenting nutrient leaching.