Browsing by Author "Sun, Qingqing"

The high intake of saturated and trans-fats could pose a chronic threat to human health. During the past decades, some fat alternatives in the form of oleogels have been developed to substitute the use of solid fats in food formulation. Generally, oleogels can be formed using chemically modified organogelators such as ethyl cellulose. In this work, we aimed to produce oleogels via high internal phase emulsion (HIPE, φoil=0.82) templates stabilized using food ingredients, i.e. protein and polysaccharide. The fabrication of HIPEs using a mixture of dispersions of two biopolymers, i.e. sodium caseinate (SC) and alginate (ALG), was optimized by varying the protein: polysaccharide ratios (i.e. 6:1, 8:1, 10:1, 12:1) and the pH (i.e. 5.5, 6.0, 7.0). Dry-heat treatment of the SC:ALG mixture at pH 7.0 was also employed for the preparation of the colloidal dispersions as a comparison to the HIPEs and oleogels stabilized by the mixtures adjusted at different pH values. HIPEs and oleogels exhibited better properties as shown by macrostructure, microstructure, physical stability against coalescence and oiling off, and rheological analysis when the pH value and the ratio of SC:ALG increased. The HIPEs and oleogels stabilized by dry-heat treated SC:ALG mixtures showed comparable results with those stabilized by SC:ALG mixed dispersions at pH 7.0. These results can provide a fundamental insight for future promising application of oleogels in fat-based product formulation.