Antinutritional factors are naturally occurring compounds in pulses, including phytates, tannins, lectins and trypsin inhibitors, that reduce nutrient bioavailability or digestibility and whose levels must be managed through processing to meet nutritional and safety requirements.
In trade practice
Soaking, dehulling, heat treatment and fermentation are the principal processing steps used to reduce antinutritional factor levels; adequate cooking is particularly important for lectins, which can cause acute gastrointestinal effects if insufficiently inactivated. For ingredients destined for infant food or clinical nutrition, buyers increasingly require analytical data on residual trypsin inhibitor activity and phytate content, since these applications have stricter nutritional performance requirements. Processors should document the time, temperature and pre-treatment parameters used and make these available as part of the technical file. Failure to validate heat treatment adequacy is a recurring finding in supplier audits for high-specification applications.
In a specification
Where relevant to the application, a specification should state maximum residual trypsin inhibitor activity expressed in standard units and the analytical method used, alongside the required processing steps.