Pea Flours Display Wide‐Ranging Intrinsic Physicochemical and Functional Traits Affecting Their Role as Food Ingredients

ABSTRACT Unrefined pea ( Pisum sativum ) flour is a promising food material that can either serve as a functional standalone ingredient or as the starting material to extract functional proteins and starches. This observational study used rapid screening of 650 pea accessions, which span a domestication range from wild species to modern cultivars, to select 20 representative samples based on near‐infrared spectral differences, capturing broad compositional diversity and illustrating how intrinsic physicochemical and protein functional traits influence their suitability in foods. To investigate the intrinsic variability, the physicochemical properties (surface charge, thermal properties, particle size), functional characteristics (solubility, interfacial tension), and visual characteristics were analyzed. Small variations in surface charge conditions were found at pH 5 and 7, whereas the charge varied from 2.7 ± 1.4 to 11.5 ± 1.4 mV at pH 3. However, high variations were found in protein solubility that ranged from 28.4% ± 5.1% to 92.2% ± 1.5% at pH 7, and differences in protein characteristics were also identified in thermal denaturation temperatures that ranged from 85.2°C ± 0.2°C to 99.6°C ± 0.8°C. These observations were confirmed through microstructural characterizations that also showcased the intrinsic color and size differences of the main constituents (starch granules and protein bodies). The findings of this study indicate that there are significant variations in the physicochemical and functional properties of different pea flours, which have considerable potential for the food industry. This highlights the importance of selecting the appropriate pea raw materials for optimal results in various food applications.