Rheological characterisation of salad-dressing-type emulsions stabilised by egg yolk/sucrose distearate blends

Abstract

The overall objective of this work was to fully characterise the rheological behaviour of oil/water emulsions stabilised by egg yolk and a sucrose ester of intermediate hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. The influence of the egg yolk/sucrose ester weight ratio in the emulsifier blend was studied by keeping the total amount of emulsifier constant. With this aim, steady state and transient flow tests, oscillatory measurements within the linear viscoelasticity regime and stress relaxation tests were carried out. Rheological tests were complemented with droplet size measurements. The results demonstrate that the rheological response and droplet size of the emulsions studied clearly depend on the weight ratio of emulsifiers in the binary blends. Steady-state and transient viscosities, as well as the dynamic functions, significantly increase with sucrose distearate concentration in the emulsifier blend. However, the evolution of other rheological parameters related to shear-induced structural breakdown, such as the critical strain for the onset of the non-linear viscoelastic behaviour, the relative deviation of the Cox-Merz rule, the time corresponding to the stress overshoot in transient tests or the damping function indicates a more developed and resistant structural network at higher egg yolk concentrations in the emulsifier blend. These results were discussed on the basis of a gel-like continuous phase formed by the sucrose ester and the highly flocculated state favoured by egg yolk.