Spontaneous Assembly and Induced Aggregation of Food Proteins

Beyond their nutritional value, food proteins are a versatile group of biopolymers with a considerable number of functionalities throughout their extensive structures, conformations and interaction–aggregation behaviour in solution. In the present paper, we give an overview of the induced aggregation and spontaneous reversible assembly of food proteins that lead to a diversity of supramolecular structures. After a brief description of the properties of some food proteins, the first part summarises the aggregation processes that lead to supramolecular structures with a variety of morphologies and sizes. The second part reports on the requirements that drive spontaneous assembly of oppositely charged proteins into reversible supramolecular structures. The promising new applications of these structures in food and non-food sectors are also mentioned