Green pea waste flour partly replaces wheat flour in pound cake
What it found
Cakes with up to 20% green pea waste flour scored close to the wheat-only cake in taste, texture and appearance.
Higher levels, from 30% up, scored lower and made denser, harder cakes.
What they found
Studies in people
Taste test scores
Cakes with 10% or 20% pea waste flour were not significantly different from the wheat-only cake in taste, odour, texture and overall liking, except for colour. Cakes with more than 30% pea waste flour had the lowest scores for all sensory qualities.
Acceptance index
All cakes had an acceptance index above 70%, which the authors say is needed for a food to be sensorially accepted. The 10% and 20% cakes scored 81.11%, while the 30%, 40% and 50% cakes dropped to around 71%.
Other findings
Cake volume and density
As more pea waste flour was used, cake volume fell from 118 cm3 to 95 cm3 and density rose from 0.3888 g/cm3 to 0.4958 g/cm3. The authors link the denser cakes to the more elastic batter holding less air.
Texture changes
Hardness increased and springiness and cohesiveness decreased as the pea waste flour level rose. Cakes with low cohesiveness crumble easily and are harder to slice.
Colour changes
The crust and crumb became less light and less yellow as more pea waste flour was added. The crumb turned green at all replacement levels, which the authors attribute to chlorophyll in the pea waste.
Batter behaviour
Batters with pea waste flour were stiffer and more elastic than the wheat-only batter. The authors say this is likely due to the higher protein and fibre content of the pea waste flour.
What the authors conclude
“High quality cakes could be obtained at GPWF-WF replacement ratios up to 20%, as they had sensorial, textural and appearance characteristics close to that of the control cake samples.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that high quality cakes could be obtained at green pea waste flour to wheat flour replacement ratios up to 20%.
- They say these cakes had sensorial, textural and appearance characteristics close to that of the control cake samples.
How it was done
The authors wanted to find a use for green pea waste from frozen pea packing, and to see if it could replace some wheat flour in pound cake.
They dried green pea waste at 65°C, ground and sieved it into flour, then baked pound cakes with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% of the wheat flour replaced. Twenty people rated the cakes, and the batters and cakes were tested for texture, colour, volume and density.
What it can’t tell you
- This study only looked at pound cake. It cannot show how green pea waste flour would work in other baked goods.
- The taste test used 20 untrained students from one university, so it may not reflect how all shoppers would rate the cakes.
- The paper does not measure any health effects of eating the cakes.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Cairo University, Egypt
The paper
- Title
- Green pea waste flour as a wheat flour partial replacer in pound cake: Batter rheology behavior and cake quality properties
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Sallam YI, El-Salam EAEA, Abaza AG (2021). Green pea waste flour as a wheat flour partial replacer in pound cake: Batter rheology behavior and cake quality properties. Acta scientiarum polonorum. Technologia alimentaria. doi:10.17306/J.AFS.0838Free full textPubMed 33449521DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error