Destabilization of mayonnaise induced by lipid crystallization upon freezing.

The thermal and rheological history of mayonnaise during freezing and its dispersion stability after the freeze-thaw process were investigated. Mayonnaise was cooled to freeze and stored at -20 to -40 °C while monitoring the temperature; penetration tests were conducted on the mayonnaise, which was sampled at selected times during isothermal storage at -20 °C. Significant increases in the temperature and stress values due to water-phase crystallization and subsequent oil-phase crystallization were observed. The water phase crystallized during the cooling step in all the tested mayonnaise samples. The oil phases of the prepared mayonnaise (with rapeseed oil) and commercial mayonnaise crystallized during isothermal storage after 6 and 4 h, respectively, at -20 °C. The dispersion stability was evaluated from the separation ratio, which was defined as the weight ratio of separated oil after centrifuging to the total amount of oil in the commercial mayonnaise. The separation ratio rapidly increased after 4 h of freezing. This result suggests that crystallization of the oil phase is strongly related to the dispersion stability of mayonnaise.