Study Shows Nutritional Value of Rapeseed Protein Equals Soya

In order to help addressing the lack of adequate protein in the diet of more than 500 million people, German researchers thoroughly compared the nutritional value of rapeseed protein with the much more widely used soya protein. It represents the first human study worldwide on the use of rapeseed protein for human nutrition, and has recently been published in the internationally renowned journal "Clinical Nutrition".

According to the researchers, providing enough food, particularly sufficient protein for the increasing populace is a challenging task for many societies, and the number of human beings suffering from a shortage even increases by 80 million every year. They point out the increasing difficulty to provide the requirement by using animal proteins such as meat, eggs, and milk, and propose an increased reliance on plant proteins. "However, by feeding valuable plant protein to animals, almost two third of it is wasted as it is transformed into animal protein," Professor Dr Gerhard Jahreis, nutritionist at Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany), says.

Rapeseed oil with its high nutritional value due to significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids has already gained a strong place in the human diet in recent years. Professor Jahreis comments: "Annually, 60 million tons of rapeseed are harvested worldwide, corresponding to about 15 million tons of rapeseed protein which is fed only to animals. We are taking a keen interest in making this important protein source available for human consumption."

The study used specially prepared protein isolate extracted from cold-pressed rapeseed oil, which was then given to 28 volunteers. The study participants consumed either rapeseed protein isolate or soya protein isolate. After ingesting the protein meals, eight blood samples were drawn from each participant and the postprandial amino acid response in blood was analysed. Prof. Jahreis sums up: "Our findings have shown that there is no difference in the bioavailability between these two protein sources. Thus, soya, mostly cultivated in South and North America, and diversely used in the production of foods, can be fully replaced by rapeseed protein harvested in Europe."

The findings could be significant for the path towards authorising the use of rapeseed protein in human nutrition, in the same way as soya protein is used today.
Paper: Manja Fleddermann, Anita Fechner, Andrea Rößler, Melanie Bähr, Anja Pastor, Frank Liebert, Gerhard Jahreis (2013): Nutritional evaluation of rapeseed protein compared to soy protein for quality, plasma amino acids, and nitrogen balance - a randomized cross-over intervention study in humans. Clinical Nutrition, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2012.11.005.