Preliminary experiments were carried out to determine the
stability of emulsions according to the method described by Dollo
et al. (2003) with slight modifications. A b-carotene concentration
of 0.06 g/100 g emulsion was mixed with 5.65 g vegetable oil/100 g
emulsion. A solution containing 15.08 g maltodextrin/100 g emulsion
and 3.84 g sodium caseinate/100 g emulsion were prepared
and used as aqueous phase. Both biopolymers were previously
hydrated during 4 h. A coarse emulsion was prepared by homogenizing
both phases at 15,000 rpm for 3 min with a Polytron
(Kinematica AG, Switzerland) high shear mixer. The coarse emulsion
was further homogenized using a high pressure homogenizer
NanoDeBee (B.E.E. International, Easton, MA) at 68.95 MPa. Emulsions
from the outlet port of the homogenizer were immediately
cooled at 4 C.