Fabrication and characterization of Pickering emulsions stabilized by desalted duck egg white nanogels and sodium alginate.

BACKGROUND

The waste of salted egg white resources has always been a serious problem in the food industry. In this current study, we report on a kind of Pickering emulsion system, which was stabilized by duck egg white nanogels (DEWNs) and sodium alginate (SA), followed by which this system was crosslinked by calcium carbonate (CaCO ) via controlling the gluconolactone (GDL) concentrations, aiming to open up a promising route for making full use of these protein resources.

RESULTS

The droplet size of the emulsion exhibited a reduction with an increase in SA concentrations, indicating that higher negative charges and steric hindrance was useful for a stable emulsion system. Meanwhile, the result of rheology measurement showed that storage modulus (G') values were higher than loss modulus (G″) values of the samples at higher GDL concentration, revealing the formation of elastic gel-like networks in the system, which was fabricated by SA and Ca released by the CaCO particles. The gel-like network structure in the continuous phase improved both the freeze-thaw and thermal stability of the obtained Pickering emulsion system. Encouragingly, the Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs, φ = 0.75) stabilized by DEWN/SA -GDL were prepared, which could be stored at 4 °C for at least 30 days without oiling-off and creaming.

CONCLUSION

These findings not only develop a green ultra-stable Pickering emulsion system but also extend the potential commercial applications of duck egg white proteins in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.