Structuring oil-in-water emulsion by forming egg yolk/alginate complexes: Their potential application in fabricating low-fat mayonnaise-like emulsion gels and redispersible solid emulsions

Overconsumption of fat-rich foods has caused increasing incidences of human chronic diseases. Thus, it is promising to fabricate reduced-fat foods, but the reduction in fat content often causes undesired textural changes in foods. In this study, we showed a facile method to structure oil-in-water emulsions via the electrostatic complexation between alginate (Alg) and egg yolk proteins at acid pHs (lower than pH 5.0), and the resulting emulsion gels displayed significant viscoelasticity, thixotropy and plasticity, which are comparable to a full-fat mayonnaise product with 75% oil content. Besides, the textural attributes of the structured emulsion gels can be tailored by simply altering the addition amount of vinegar, a commonly used ingredient in fabricating mayonnaise-like products to confer good sensory profile. After lyophilization, we obtained dry emulsion gels with a high oil content (~75%), and it was found that the dried gel prepared at pH 5.8 showed better dispersibility than at other pHs, highlighting the potential application prospect of the gels to be developed as a carrier for loading functional oil soluble compounds.