Improving the functionality of fat crystal-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions

改善脂肪晶体稳定的油包水乳液的功能

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-05344
• 负责人: Rousseau, Dérick
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: Ryerson University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=748545
• 关键词: Improving; functionality; fat; crystal; stabilized

Many food emulsions such as vinaigrette and cream consist of tiny oil droplets suspended in water. Emulsifiers are important ingredients that help prevent the oil and water from separating. Examples include milk protein and mustard powder. Recently, spurred by their potential for calorie reduction and costs savings to food processors, emulsions kept stable by particles rather than emulsifiers have seen rising interest. This approach has also been gaining traction to stabilize emulsions consisting of tiny water droplets suspended in oil, so-called water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions, which are present in products such as butter and margarine. There have been dedicated efforts to develop and understand particle-based stabilizers in non-food applications such as sunscreens and crude oil, because these particles impart a very long shelf life. In foods, though many types of particles are being explored (e.g., based on starch or protein), such is not the case with fat crystals based on the dearth of knowledge in the scientific literature. As a result, there exists a great opportunity to deepen the knowledge base regarding how fat crystals may behave as emulsion stabilizers, which is particularly relevant as fats are present in many processed foods. To address this, I propose the following four aims to greatly advance the underlying knowledge base regarding how fat crystals interact with the surface of dispersed water droplets in W/O emulsions. Aim 1 will establish the science underpinning the stabilization of W/O emulsions with fat crystals, focusing on the ability of crystals that exist as tiny particles or films to help increase emulsion stability. This process may be greatly controlled by adding different food emulsifiers. Aim 2 will explore the ability of fat crystal particles or films to change emulsion texture and rheology by tuning how they interact with water droplets, also in the presence of emulsifiers. Similarly, aim 3 will resolve how different emulsifiers promote or disturb how fat crystals and water droplets interact to controllably destabilize and release bioactive ingredients incorporated as cargo within emulsion aqueous droplets. Aim 4 will innovate further to reveal how fat crystal-stabilized W/O emulsions behave in a lab-scale digestive system. Addressing these aims will aid in the development of food emulsions with a longer shelf life, lower caloric load, and new textures to facilitate ingestion. The feasibility of the proposed research is supported by the fact that my lab is actively involved in the early stages of all 4 aims and has published initial papers on these topics. The highly-relevant research stemming from these 4 aims will provide greater awareness regarding the mechanisms of interfacial fat crystallization in W/O emulsions - knowledge that is currently lacking and that promises to yield great insights for the development of food emulsions with health-promoting properties.

许多食品乳状液，如醋油沙司和奶油，是由悬浮在水中的微小油滴组成的。乳化剂是帮助防止油和水分离的重要成分。例子包括牛奶蛋白和芥末粉。最近，由于乳液具有减少热量和节省食品加工商成本的潜力，通过颗粒而不是乳化剂保持稳定的乳液引起了越来越多的关注。这种方法在稳定由悬浮在油中的微小水滴组成的乳液，即所谓的油包水（W/O）乳液方面也越来越受欢迎，这种乳液存在于黄油和人造黄油等产品中。人们一直致力于开发和了解非食品应用中的基于颗粒的稳定剂，如防晒霜和原油，因为这些颗粒具有非常长的保质期。在食物中，尽管许多类型的颗粒正在被探索（例如，基于淀粉或蛋白质），但基于科学文献中知识的缺乏，脂肪晶体的情况并非如此。因此，存在一个很好的机会来加深关于脂肪晶体如何作为乳化稳定剂的知识基础，这与许多加工食品中存在的脂肪特别相关。为了解决这个问题，我提出了以下四个目标，以大大推进关于脂肪晶体如何与W/O乳液中分散的水滴表面相互作用的基础知识。目标1将建立科学的基础上稳定的W/O乳液与脂肪晶体，重点是晶体的能力，存在的微小颗粒或薄膜，以帮助提高乳液稳定性。这一过程可以通过添加不同的食品乳化剂来大大控制。目标2将探索脂肪晶体颗粒或膜通过调节它们如何与水滴相互作用来改变乳液质地和流变学的能力，也是在乳化剂存在下。类似地，目标3将解决不同的乳化剂如何促进或干扰脂肪晶体和水滴如何相互作用以可控地使作为货物掺入乳液水性液滴内的生物活性成分不稳定并释放。目标4将进一步创新，以揭示脂肪晶体稳定的W/O乳液在实验室规模的消化系统中的行为。实现这些目标将有助于开发具有更长保质期、更低热量负荷和新质地的食品乳剂，以促进摄入。我的实验室积极参与了所有4个目标的早期阶段，并发表了关于这些主题的初步论文，这一事实支持了拟议研究的可行性。这4个目标的高度相关研究将使人们更好地了解W/O乳液中界面脂肪结晶的机制-目前缺乏的知识，并有望为开发具有健康促进特性的食品乳液提供重要见解。