Evaluation of Biopolymer-Based Emulsion for Delivering Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) as a Functional Ingredient in Beverages

Abstract

The experiment was designed to determine the most suitable formula for conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) oil-in-water-beverage emulsion using D-optimal design and response surface method. The influence of the main emulsion ingredients of Arabic gum (AG), xanthan gum (XG), and CLA oil was investigated on the beverage emulsion characteristics. The studied responses were mainly surface-weighted mean diameter (D32), specific surface area (SSA) of droplets, heat stability (HS), surface tension, and pH. Based on the regression analysis, 10% w/w AG, 3.5% w/w CLA, and 0.3% w/w XG were introduced as the optimum formula and at this formulation, D32, SSA, HS, surface tension, and pH were 2.8963 µm, 2.0790 m2/mL, 99.5756%, 43.65 mN/m, and 2.8637, respectively. The physicochemical and the oxidative stability of the selected emulsion were also evaluated over 49 days of storage. The results generally revealed that this beverage emulsion was stable during storage and it is possible to produce a CLA oil-in-water emulsion in order to fortify beverages with CLA as the functional lipid ingredient.