Pea Protein Offers New Opportunities for Roquette

02 Mar 2015 --- A new study published by food ingredients manufacturer Roquette demonstrates that pea protein supplements match whey for muscle thickness gains.

Protein supplementation in sport nutrition is becoming more common. In a global ecological context where protein consumption is increasing worldwide, nutritional and sustainable alternative solutions to animal proteins are required.

Together with the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the Centre for Performance Expertise (Dijon, France), the team of the Biology and Nutrition Department at Roquette developed a double blind placebo controlled protocol to be tested in 161 young men, randomly assigned to one of three groups: whey protein, pea protein, or placebo (maltodextrin). All undertook 12 weeks of resistance training and volunteers from the protein groups consumed 25 gram doses of protein (whey or pea) twice a day during this period.

Results indicated first that all groups benefited similarly from the physical training (no difference between groups). However, there was a specific advantage observed in a sub-group of participants that had the weakest muscular strength at the beginning: a significant difference was observed in favour of the pea protein groups (increase of 20.2% versus 8.6% of the brachial muscle thickness) as compared to the placebo, and a slight though not statistically significant difference with the group whey protein (increase of 15.6% in average).

Roquette is developing plant-based solutions that could ideally fit both with socio-ethical obligations and with an objective of providing innovative nutritional solutions in the field of our strategic platforms.

For example, the vegetable pea protein Nutralys displays a very good nutritional profile (high digestibility, good amino acid profile) and therefore can be a good candidate for nutrition supplementation in sport.

Nutralys vegetable pea proteins could therefore be a safe alternative to whey-based dietary products. Other types of populations could also potentially benefit from similar complementation or integration in appropriate diets doubled with adapted physical activity, for example elderly people, who often suffer from sarcopenia.

These results are a first step on the way to demonstrate that specific solutions for specific needs, such as sports nutrition, do not only exist in the field of animal proteins but also plant-based ones. In addition, the "non-allergenic" and "GMO-free" characteristics of Roquette’s pea proteins make the difference on a global market of vegetable proteins. With the on-going technological and functional developments (plant-based protein growing range with the new algility range), plant based proteins offer a promising perspective in terms of innovation for Roquette.