SELECTED PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF MODEL EMULSION SYSTEMS CONTAINING SWEET ALMOND OIL, LECITHIN AND -GLUCAN

Abstract

Background. Emulsions are perishable systems. In order to achieve certain stability, e.g. a variety of chemical substances and compounds of natural origin are used to stabilize and improve the physicochemi cal properties and also to increase the nutritional value of the final product. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the addition of lecithin and β-glucan on the parameters of texture, color, physical stability and microstructure of emulsion systems containing sweet almond oil. Emulsions containing dif ferent proportions of lecithin and β-glucan were studied and analyzed for texture, color, stability and mi crostructure. A CT3 Texture Analyzer was used to measure the adhesion strength and hardness of the emulsions produced. The color of the emulsions produced was determined using a Konica Minolta CR400 colorimeter, whereas a Turbiscan Lab analyzer was used to determine destabilization changes occurring in the emulsions produced. A Genetic Pro Trino optical microscope coupled to a camera was used to deter mine the microstructure of the emulsions. Results and conclusions. The results confirmed the influence of the addition of both stabilizers, both the type and variable amounts. β-glucan used alone was found to be insufficient to stabilize the emulsion systems. The highest physical stability was determined for the emulsion system containing lecithin alone. In the systems in which lecithin and β-glucan (at different concentrations) were the stabilizers, satisfactory stability was not obtained. The results obtained prove that it was advisable to conduct the research on emulsion systems with two different stabilizing substances and that there is the need to continue works on the impact of a system of such additives used in varying proportions. Such reformulation of the composi tion can be an important factor in increasing the physical stability of emulsion systems and increasing their nutritional value.