UMass Amherst Team to Develop New Plant-based Protein Food from Chickpeas and Peas

A research team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) will be developing a tasty, nutritious, and sustainable plant-based alternative to animal meat. This product may help offset the health risks of the Western diet, such as obesity, fatty liver, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.

The new plant-based protein food uses tempeh, a fermented fungal food, that will transform the nutrients of chickpeas into a different compound. Hang Xiao, a Professor of Food Science at UMass Amherst, says that this will impact the nutritional value and sensory properties of the final products.

Preliminary research and data showed that feeding obese mice with chickpea tempeh did inhibit high-fat diet-induced body weight gain, fatty liver formation, and negative changes in the gut microbiome. The findings revealed a nutritious high-fiber, low-fat tempeh resulting from enhanced health benefits of chickpeas.

For more information, read the article from UMass.