Investigating the effects of zein preparation conditions on its structure, functional properties and zearalenone contamination

Abstract

Zein has received great attention in recent years as its applications in food and medical fields. However, the presence of zein-bound zearalenone (ZEN) in zein could exert great hazard to humans and animals. Here, we reported the controlling of zearalenone (ZEN) interaction with zein, and functional properties through modeling temperature and pH during zein preparation. Results showed that except for the preparation conditions (pH 0, pH 14), when zein was prepared under the pH 1–13 at 40 or 80 °C, zein had good spherical structure, foaming, rheological and encapsulation properties. When zein was prepared at acid conditions (pH 0–2), acid conditions promoted ZEN-zein interaction, forming zein-bound ZEN. Whereas, the alkaline conditions (pH 11–14) destroyed ZEN-zein interaction and degraded ZEN, decreasing the hazard of ZEN. Overall, enhancing alkaline condition to pH 13 at 80 °C could be a potentially useful means to maintain great functional property and restrain the hazard of ZEN, contributing to applying zein in food, nutrition and pharmaceutical fields.