The influence of polysaccharide on the stability of protein stabilized oil-in-water emulsion prepared by microchannel emulsification technique

The influence of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) on the stability of monodisperse beta-lactoglobulin (β-lg) stabilized oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion was investigated. Monodisperse emulsion droplets with particle size (d3,2) of 29.6 μm and coefficient of variation (CV) of 9% were generated by microchannel (MC) emulsification using a hydrophilic asymmetric straight-through MC silicon 24 mm × 24 mm microchip consisting of 23,348 microchannels. This study demonstrates that the stability of the emulsions produced was mainly governed by the CMC/β-lg concentration ratios, pH and heating conditions. Emulsions were highly susceptible to aggregation at intermediate CMC/β-lg concentration ratios (0.02–0.25) but were relatively stable at high ratios (higher than 0.5). At the pH near the isoelectric point of β-lg, β-lg stabilized emulsions were more prone to destabilization after heating and prolong storage in contrast to those emulsions with CMC present in their system.