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D. J. MCCLEMENTS, Dept. of Food Science, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, 238 Chenoweth Lab., Box 31410, Amherst, MA 01003 Whey proteins are widely used as emulsifiers in the food industry because of their ability to facilitate emulsion formation and improve emulsion stability. Whey proteins rapidly accumulate around the oil droplets formed during homogenization, where they facilitate droplet disruption by lowering the interfacial tension and retard droplet coalescence by forming protective membranes around the droplets. Whey proteins stabilize droplets against aggregation through a variety of repulsive interactions, with electrostatic and steric repulsion being the most important. This presentation reviews the current understanding of the influence of solution conditions (pH and ionic strength) and environmental stresses (agitation, heating, freezing and drying) on the ability of whey proteins to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions. In addition, recent progress in the utilization of whey proteins to form multi-layered membranes around oil droplets that can be used to improve the properties of food emulsions, and to develop novel encapsulation technologies is reviewed.
Session 30, Whey proteins in foods: Past, present and future
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |