Delving into textural, rheological, digestion, and microstructural properties of mung bean and chickpea-based sausages as a function of gluten

Plant-based sausages (PBS) were formulated using heat-induced gelation to assess the influence of gluten in terms of structure, texture profile, rheology, digestibility, and shelf-life of PBS. The PBS formulation contained varying amounts of black chickpea flour, mung bean protein isolate, wheat gluten (WG), and fixed amounts of psyllium husk, water, and oil. WG significantly influenced the color. TPA showed that incorporation of WG increased the hardness (6501.8 ± 2.5 N), cohesiveness (0.9 ± 0.01 N), springiness (0.9 ± 0.01), and chewiness (5595.1 ± 2.1 N). The G″ and storage modulus G′ were enhanced with increasing amounts of WG. The WG prevented the secondary oxidative damage to the lipids in the PBS. Furthermore, the WG demonstrated its ability to prevent microbial load and improve shelf-life by suppressing the growth of aerobic microorganisms and coliform bacteria. The overall findings provide a fundamental understanding of the role of WG in PBS, which can be helpful in developing and tailoring PBS to meet consumer requirements.