Textural perception of liquid emulsions: Role of oil content, oil viscosity and emulsion viscosity

This work describes a study on the in-mouth textural perception of thickened liquid oil-in-water emulsions. The variables studied are oil content, oil viscosity, and the concentration of polysaccharide thickener. Gum arabic was chosen as the thickener because of the nearly Newtonian behavior of its solutions and special care was taken to suppress aroma clues. Based on the experimental results and findings from previous studies, this work shows that the emulsion droplets influence textural sensory perception of liquid emulsions by three main mechanisms, each of which relate to changes in specific sensory attributes, and none of which were found to be significantly dependent on the viscosity of the oil: 1) by increasing the viscosity, 2) by becoming incorporated in the mucous oral coating, and 3) by spreading oil at the oral surfaces. Based on these results, the possibility for replacement of emulsified fat by a polysaccharide thickener is evaluated.