Master internship or equivalent: hydrothermal treatment of legumes

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INRAE ​​presentation

The National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) is a public research establishment bringing together a working community of 12,000 people, with 268 units research, service and experimental, implanted in 18 centres on all France. INRAE ​​is positioned among the very first world leaders in agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences. His research aims to build solutions for multi-performing agriculture, quality food and sustainable management of resources and ecosystems.

Work environment, missions and activities

STAGE Level Master or equivalent : hydrothermal treatment of legumes
Development of a method for measuring the texture of lentils during cooking

Context & objective
In order to rebalance our consumption of animal proteins towards vegetable proteins, it is essential to
provide various sources of high nutritional quality vegetable protein in the diet. The
legumes, and in particular lentils, are known for their excellent nutritional quality but the
development of their consumption requires an adaptation of their preparation, eg. a reduction in their
cooking time at home, or even the use of preserves. Hydrothermal treatments, widely used
to this end, are faced with a large variability of lens samples with texture problems
unpredictable processed products. This difficulty is increased by the absence of a reliable universal method.
to evaluate the texture. The objective of this internship is therefore to develop a reliable and robust method for this
make and apply it to different batches of lenses subjected to hydrothermal treatment.

BIA (Biopolymères, Interactions & Assemblages) is an INRAE ​​research laboratory, located in Nantes, which
has around 120 permanent staff – researchers and technicians – and welcomes more than 60 students each year
Masters, doctoral students and post-docs. In a context of sustainable development, its objectives are to
contribute to controlling the quality of plant and food production.
You will integrate a large project whose general objective is to understand the evolution of the texture of
legumes undergoing hydrothermal treatments, taking into account the variability of their constituents
and their hydration mechanisms.

Programme :
Supervised jointly by INRAE ​​researchers, you will carry out a bibliographic study on the methods
evaluation of the texture and on the basis of these elements, and with the experimental devices available at
laboratory, you will determine the key operating parameters (geometry and kinematics of the mobile, quantity of
seeds, cooking time, etc.). The selection of the optimal combination of parameters will be made on the basis
a compromise between repeatability and discriminating power. This step does not require skills
metrological methods, the supervisory team will also provide all the necessary technical support. a
Logical mind and basic statistical skills will, however, be useful in establishing the protocol.
Depending on the progress of the internship, you can then apply this method to different batches to
specify the cooking kinetics of the lentils, or examine some structural modifications by microscopy
and calorimetric analysis, or even compare the results with those from a sensory analysis.
You will therefore be responsible for collaborative work, which will lead you to interact regularly with
scientists in the field. This internship will allow you to offer a transferable method, in particular with
industrial partners. It is thus a particularly interesting professional step for a
career in industry or applied research.

Training and skills sought