Quality Characteristics of Peanut Products

Abstract

Peanut processing and consumption patterns vary in different countries. In the United States, 65% of peanuts are used for food, about 30% for peanut butter processing, and only 15% for oil; in China, 55% of peanuts are used for oil extraction, 30% for food, 7% for exports, and 8% for seed reservation. At present, the main peanut-processed products in China include peanut oil, peanut protein (powder), peanut-texturized protein, peanut beverage, peanut butter, and peanut candy. The annual output of peanut oil is about 2.5 million tons, and its annual consumption accounts for 8% of the total edible oil; meanwhile the total content of unsaturated fatty acid is more than 85%, which is very similar to the fatty acid composition of olive oil. With the efficacy of reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease, it is known as “Chinese olive oil,” so peanut oil has been the leading domestic peanut-processed products and the research focus in the field of peanut processing. At the same time, in recent years, with the promotion of peanut oil cold pressing technology, the deep development and utilization of peanut protein have aroused domestic attention, especially the preparation, structure, and functional evaluation of peanut protein, and the influence of different varieties of protein components and subunit contents on the gel property, solubility, emulsibility, and other functional properties has increasingly become the research focus in this field. Based on the research of the processing characteristics of different peanut varieties, the team systematically studied the functional properties of peanut protein such as preparation, gelation, and solubility, as well as the composition and oxidation stability of peanut oil, and analyzed the processing characteristics of peanut oil, peanut protein, and other main peanut-processed products, so as to provide China’s peanut processing enterprises with technical support to produce high-quality peanut-processed products.