Rheology and dispensing of real and vegan mayo: the chickpea or egg problem.

The rheology, stability, texture, and taste of mayonnaise, a dense oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion, are determined by interfacially active egg lipids and proteins. Often mayonnaise is presented as a challenging example of an egg-based food material that is hard to emulate using plant-based or vegan ingredients. In this contribution, we characterize the flow behavior of animal-based and plant-based mayo emulsions, seeking to decipher the signatures that make the real mayonnaise into such an appetizing complex fluid. We find that commercially available vegan mayos can emulate the apparent yield stress and shear thinning of yolk-based mayonnaise by the combined influence of plant-based proteins (like those extracted from chickpeas) and polysaccharide thickeners. However, we show that the dispensing and dipping behavior of egg-based and vegan mayos display striking differences in neck shape, sharpness, and length. The ratio of apparent extensional to shear yield stress value is found to be larger than the theoretically predicted square root of three for all mayo emulsions. The analysis of neck radius evolution of these extension thinning yield stress fluids reveals that even when the power law exponent governing the intermediate pinching dynamics is similar to the exponent obtained from the shear flow curve, the terminal pinching dynamics show strong local effects, possibly influenced by interstitial fluid properties, finite drop size and deformations, and capillarity.

Lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis extended to the conversion of a variety of edible oils into structural fats.

Lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis was recently shown to be a viable technique to structure cottonseed and peanut oils into structural fats by converting native triacylglycerols into partial glycerides without changing overall fatty acid composition. Here, this approach was extended to a variety oils of differing fatty acid compositions. Reactions were performed at 65 â€‹°C for 48 â€‹h at a triacylglycerol:glycerol molar ratio of 1:1, using the non-regiospecific Candida antarctica lipase B. In all oil systems, a 20 â€‹°C increase in crystallization onset temperature was observed following glycerolysis. Solid fat content increases resulting from glycerolysis were greatest for oils containing >10% saturated fat along with a high oleic acid content. The solid fat content of tigernut oil at 5 â€‹°C increased from 8% to 34% following glycerolysis. Tigernut glycerolysis product was used to make margarine with plasticity similar to commercial margarine and butter. This research demonstrates that glycerolysis is a general strategy to convert liquid oils into structural fats used in food applications, and thus replace palm oil and hydrogenated fats.

Enzymatic glycerolysis converts vegetable oils into structural fats with the potential to replace palm oil in food products.

Current trans fat replacement strategies provide food products with acceptable textural and sensory properties on a large scale, and at a reasonable price, but carry health and environmental burdens. Palm oil is used extensively because of its high solidity and functionality; however, increased production has led to deforestation throughout the world's tropical regions. To reduce dependence on palm oil it is necessary to find a means of structuring a variety of readily available vegetable oils. Using cottonseed and peanut oils, among others, we show that enzymatic glycerolysis can structure liquid oils into solid fats through monoacylglycerol and diacylglycerol production from their native triacylglycerols without the addition of saturated or hydrogenated fat, thus not altering fatty acid composition. Solid fat contents of cottonseed and peanut oils were increased from 8% to 29% and 9% to 30% at 5 °C, respectively, and 21% and 10% at 20 °C, respectively. Additionally, oil-binding capacity was enhanced significantly. These novel oils were used to produce margarine and peanut butter with similar textural properties to commercial products and, importantly, represent a healthy and sustainable means to replace hydrogenated or saturated fats.

Advances in our understanding of the structure and functionality of edible fats and fat mimetics.

The reasons for the increased world-wide incidence of obesity, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease include sedentary lifestyles and poor food choices. Regulatory agencies in several countries now require companies to add unattractive front of package labels to their products where salt, sugar and fat (or saturated fat) levels are prominently displayed. After the demise of partially hydrogenated fats, saturated fat has become the new target. Consumption of saturated fat over polyunsaturated oil has been clearly shown to increase cholesterol levels in humans. However, saturated fats provide the functionality required in many food products. To complicate matters, concerns over sustainability, veganism, genetically modified organisms, animal welfare, as well as religious beliefs, severely limit our sources of saturated fat. In this review we will discuss recent advances in our understanding of the nano and mesoscale structure of fats, responsible for their physical functionality and contrast it to that of fat mimetics. Fat mimetics include polymeric networks of ethylcellulose, emulsion-templated networks of proteins and polysaccharides, colloidal and self-assembled fibrillar networks of polar lipid crystals, as well as solid o/w emulsions of oil trapped within crystallized lamellar mesophases. Clean label and economic considerations will also be touched upon.

Dataset on the elastic modulus of heat-set whey protein isolate/xanthan gum mixed biopolymer hydrogels filled with glass microspheres: A model particle-filled composite food system.

This article presents data related to the research article entitled 'Considerations for readdressing theoretical descriptions of particle-filled composite food gels' [1]. The elastic modulus of mixed biopolymer composite gels consisting of heat-set whey protein isolate and xanthan gum (WPI-X) filled with glass microspheres is reported. Gels were evaluated as a function of volume fraction filler (φf = 0-0.5), with varying filler size (4 µm, 7-10 µm, 45-90 µm, and 150-210 µm) and ionic strength of the protein phase (0, 50, 100, 200 mM NaCl). The reported elastic modulus data was extracted from large deformation uniaxial compression tests. This data is relevant to the development of alternative particle reinforcement models, or adaptation of existing theories. Further, it represents the limiting case of rigid inclusions, which can eliminate certain confounding assumptions in established models.

Considerations for readdressing theoretical descriptions of particle-reinforced composite food gels.

The aim of this work was to address the ability of established theoretical models to describe the small deformation mechanical properties of particle-filled food protein gels. To this end, the effect of incorporating glass microspheres on the elastic modulus of heat-set whey protein isolate/xanthan gum gels is reported. Filler size and polydispersity strongly influenced the observed reinforcement with increasing filler content; however, these effects were also strongly correlated to the ionic strength of the gelator phase (0-200 mM NaCl). Fillers with greater polydispersity provided less reinforcement at high filler content, which was associated with improved packing efficiency. Increasing ionic strength reduced the extent of filler/matrix binding, drastically reducing the impact of the smaller glass microspheres (4 µm, 7-10 µm). Larger particles increased the elastic modulus at high salt content due to interfacial stress concentration and particle-particle contacts. Theoretical fits could not satisfactorily describe the general trend in reinforcement observed with increasing filler content, despite employing various methods to account for the effects of filler self-crowding. Using an empirical approach, we propose an alternative functional form which provides improved fits over the entire range of filler content investigated. This general power law (GPL) model provided physically reasonable values for the maximum packing fraction through an empirically-derived expression for the scaling exponent. A weighted average approach was also proposed to incorporate effects of imperfect filler/matrix adhesion. This method incorporates contributions of both bound and unbound fillers, providing a means to model the effect of increasing ionic strength.