Abstract: Quinoa grain products having a reduced bitter flavor with a sweet taste or crunchy texture. Despite numerous beneficial properties, quinoa grain has not been utilized in a wide variety of products. Provided are efficient processes for quinoa to obtain additional products and to process the quinoa grain to yield components for food ingredients. The dried edible quinoa product is particularly useful to flavor and/or texture bakery products, nutrition bars, granolas, confections and chocolates. It can withstand additional and/or extreme food processing and can be used as a replacement for allergenic nuts, seeds, and sesame seeds. The sweet quinoa product is particularly useful to flavor and/or sweeten, or function as humectants, in bakery products, nutrition bars, beverages, and coffee and tea products and can serve as a replacement or partial replacement of corn syrup and brown rice syrup. Lastly, the quinoa products are considered to be hypo-allergenic.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a new source of high quality plant protein, termed, “quinoa protein concentrate” or “QPC”, which contains at least about 50 wt % protein which is food-grade and/or pharmaceutical-grade and methods of preparing such protein concentrates as well as starch, oil, and fiber from quinoa grain. The quinoa protein concentrate of the invention is useful as food ingredients, infant formula ingredients, cosmetic ingredients, pet food ingredients, and animal feed supplements.