Process for crosslinking proteins with dihydroxyacetone

Abstract

A process for cross-linking proteins, according to which the crosslinking agent is dihydroxyacetone and the proteins are chosen from proteins from animal tissues, from milk or from blood, such as in particular casein, gelatin or collagen; proteins from cereals, such as in particular maize, wheat or rice proteins; protein from high-protein plants, such as in particular pea, alfalfa, lupin, barley, millet or sorghum proteins; proteins from oleaginous plants, such as in particular soybean proteins, for instance soybean cakes, rapeseed or flax proteins, for instance rapeseed cakes, sunflower, groundnut or cotton proteins; and proteins from tubers, such as in particular from potato or manioc.

1 . A process for cross-linking proteins, comprising:
 crosslinking a protein by contacting dihydroxyacetone with the protein at dry weight concentration of 0.5 to 20% of the crosslinking agent relative to the protein and maintaining contact between the crosslinking agent and the protein at a temperature between 20 and 105° C. for a period of time between greater than a few minutes and 60 minutes, wherein the period time is sufficient to obtain crosslinked water insoluble proteins; and   recovering the crosslinked water insoluble protein, wherein,   the protein is selected from the group consisting of proteins group consisting of proteins from animal tissues, proteins from milk, proteins from blood, proteins from cereals, proteins from high-protein plants, proteins from oleaginous plants, and proteins from tubers.   
     
     
         2 . The process according to  claim 1 , wherein the proteins are selected from the group consisting of proteins from cereals, proteins from high-protein plants, proteins from oleaginous plants, and proteins from tubers. 
     
     
         3 . The process according to  claim 1 , wherein protein is selected from the group consisting of casein, gelatin and collagen, wheat proteins, rice proteins, pea proteins, alfalfa proteins, lupin proteins, barley proteins, millet proteins, sorghum proteins, soybean proteins, soybean cakes, rapeseed proteins, flax proteins, rapeseed cakes, sunflower proteins, groundnut proteins, cotton proteins potato proteins, and manioc proteins. 
     
     
         4 . The process according to  claim 1 , wherein protein is selected from the group consisting of soybean cakes, rapeseed cakes, flax cakes, milk proteins, pea proteins, and wheat proteins. 
     
     
         5 . The process according to  claim 1 , wherein the proteins are selected from the groups consisting of maize proteins, wheat proteins, rice proteins, proteins from high-protein plants, pea proteins, alfalfa proteins, lupin proteins, barley proteins, millet proteins, sorghum proteins, proteins from oleaginous plants, soybean proteins, soybean cakes, rapeseed proteins, flax proteins rapeseed cakes, sunflower proteins, groundnut proteins, cotton proteins, and proteins from tubers, potato proteins, and manioc proteins. 
     
     
         6 . The process according to  claim 1 , wherein the protein is contacted with the dihydroxyacetone at a concentration by dry weight of the dihydroxyacetone of 1 to 10%, relative to the dry weight of the proteins to be treated. 
     
     
         7 . The process according to  claim 6 , wherein the protein is contacted with the dihydroxyacetone at a concentration by dry weight of the dihydroxyacetone of 1 to 5%, relative to the dry weight of the proteins to be treated. 
     
     
         8 . The process according to  claim 1 , wherein the protein is a high-protein plant isolate. 
     
     
         9 . The process according to  claim 1 , further comprising introducing the crosslinked water insoluble protein into a feed composition. 
     
     
         10 . A water insoluble protein crosslinked with dihydroxyacetone, wherein said protein is obtained by the process according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         11 . A process for preparing animal feed, comprising replacing either proteins treated with mineral tannins, or proteins treated with aldehyde tannins by the cross-linked water insoluble protein according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         12 . The process according to  claim 11 , wherein the wherein the mineral tannins are proteins tanned with zinc salts, and the proteins treated with aldehyde tannins are selected from the group consisting of proteins tanned with formaldehyde, proteins tanned with glyoxal, proteins tanned with glutaraldehyde, and proteins tanned with formol.