While the presence of calcium produced aggregation of particles at
initial conditions, this microstructure was substantially affected by
freeze-thawing in the absence of sucrose, including coalescence of
oil droplets (Fig. 3b). The SB without calcium and without sucrose
eventually reached a relatively high D4,3 value, but this increasewas
more gradual than in presence of calcium (Table 1). Divalent and
multivalent counter-ions are noticeable more efficient than
monovalent ones at promoting colloidal destabilization
(McClements, 2004). The abrupt destabilization observed in the
systems with calcium salts can be attributed to the effective
screening of the electrostatic repulsion by Ca2þ, favoring the formation
of new particle aggregates, especially when the divalent
cation was cryo-concentrated in the unfrozen aqueous phase.
Calcium chloride (CaCl2) is highly dissociated while calcium
lactate (CaL2) is only partially dissociated as a consequence of the
following two step dissociation equilibrium (Vavrusova, Munk, &