The effects of XG/EMG gum mixtures on the stability of WPIstabilized
fish oil-in-water emulsions were investigated.
The addition of XG/EMG gum mixtures significantly increased the emulsions
viscosity, reduced creaming, and decreased depletion flocculation of oil droplets as compared to GG, XG, or XG/GG mixtures.
At lower polysaccharide concentrations, droplet-droplet interactions, attributed to the depression of repulsive electrostatic forces between adjacent droplets, led to strong flocculation formation and thus, phase separation, while at above 0.15%, flocculation
formation and phase separation were greatly slowed down by the high viscosity of the XG/EMG emulsions, leading to stable emulsions.
The PV and TBARs values, and hexanal concentrations indicated reduced lipid oxidation in emulsions containing XG/EMGgum mixtures.
Although the PV and TBARs values indicated a considerable reduction in lipid oxidation during the 14-day storage, no significance difference (P > 0.05) was observed among the emulsions
containing XG/EMG gum mixtures and other emulsions.
Therefore, this study recommends future studies where lipid oxidation measurements should be conducted for a longer period of storage.
This study has helped in identifying the optimum concentrations of XG/EMG gum mixtures that allow incorporation of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids to produce thermodynamically
stable oil-in-water emulsions.