Abstract: The phenomenon of thermal denaturation and coagulation occurs when liquid whole egg is heated at 64.5 ℃ or above, limiting its application in food processing. In this study, liquid whole egg was modified by sequential preheating, octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) modification and ultrasonic treatment. Polymer dispersity index (PDI), particle size, turbidity, rheological properties, solubility and differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis were used as indicators to investigate the variation in the thermal stability of liquid whole egg as a function of OSA dosage. The results showed that when 10% OSA was added, the apparent viscosity, G’ and G’’ of liquid whole egg were the lowest, which indicates that protein aggregation was minimized. The decrease in PDI value, average particle size, turbidity and the increase in solubility reflected improved thermal stability of liquid whole egg. At the same time, the results of DSC proved that when the amount of OSA addition was 10%, the thermal denaturation temperature was up to 95.91 ℃. This modification method could improve the thermal stability of liquid whole egg and therefore could provide an effective method for its intensive processing and sterilization.

Key words: liquid whole egg, octenyl succinic anhydride, ultrasound, thermal stability