The increased consumption of legume seeds as a strategy for enhancing food security, reducing malnutrition, and improving health outcomes on a global scale remains an ongoing subject of profound research interest. Legume seed proteins are rich in their dietary protein contents. However, coexisting with these proteins in the seed matrix are other components that inhibit protein digestibility. Thus, improving access to legume proteins often depends on the neutralisation of these inhibitors, which are collectively described as antinutrients or antinutritional factors. The determination of protein quality, which typically involves evaluating protein digestibility and essential amino acid content, is assessed using various methods, such as in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestibility, protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (IV-PDCAAS), and digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS). Since most edible legumes are mainly available in their processed forms, an interrogation of these processing methods, which could be traditional (e.g., cooking, milling, extrusion, germination, and fermentation) or based on emerging technologies (e.g., high-pressure processing (HPP), ultrasound, irradiation, pulsed electric field (PEF), and microwave), is not only critical but also necessary given the capacity of processing methods to influence protein digestibility. Therefore, this timely and important review discusses how each of these processing methods affects legume seed digestibility, examines the potential for improvements, highlights the challenges posed by antinutritional factors, and suggests areas of focus for future research.

Iron, zinc, and calcium are essential micronutrients that play vital biological roles to maintain human health. Thus, their deficiencies are a public health concern worldwide. Mitigation of these deficiencies involves micronutrient fortification of staple foods, a strategy that can alter the physical and sensory properties of foods. Peptide–mineral complexes have been identified as promising alternatives for mineral-fortified functional foods or mineral supplements. This review outlines some of the methods used in the determination of the mineral chelating activities of food protein-derived peptides and the approaches for the preparation, purification and identification of mineral-binding peptides. The structure–activity relationship of mineral-binding peptides and the potential use of peptide–mineral complexes as functional food ingredients to mitigate micronutrient deficiency are discussed in relation to their chemical interactions, solubility, gastrointestinal digestion, absorption, and bioavailability. Finally, insights on the current challenges and future research directions in this area are provided.

Food production has been intensified significantly to meet food and nutrition security needs of the increasing global population. The environmental impact has been detrimental and thus, sustainable protein alternatives are being explored. Plant proteins are widely used because of their low cost, accessibility, health benefits, and ethical considerations. This has led to the development of plant‐based meat analogues (PBMAs) as a means of widening consumer food choice options because PBMAs are intended to mimic the appearance, mouthfeel, and taste of meat. From the review of available literature, processing methods used in converting amorphous plant protein powders to fibrous meat‐like structures can denature proteins and expose their reactive side chains to interact with other components in the food matrix. These interactions can lead to the formation of complexes that are resistant to enzymatic digestion and reduce the bioavailability of essential amino acids. Based on the amount of protein, the climate impact of PBMAs is estimated to be twice as much as that of peas, three times as that of nuts, and slightly higher than that of other pulses. However, when compared to animal proteins, the difference is remarkable. PBMAs recorded 0.99 kg CO ₂ eq/100 g of protein whereas beef recorded 50 kg CO ₂ eq/100 g of protein. This review shows that in closely imitating meat structures in PBMAs, the processing methods used can affect protein quality and increase their environmental impact.