Abstract: This study investigated the effects of adding different amounts of arabic gum (AG) on the improving the physical stability of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions prepared with myofibrillar protein (MP). It was demonstrated that the emulsifying activity index and emulsion stability index increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of AG concentrations. Emulsions with 0.3% AG had the highest physical stability and ζ-potential, smallest particle size, and lowest creaming index (P < 0.05). Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) observation proved that emulsions with 0.3% AG possessed relatively small droplets compared with the ones without AG, which was coincident with the results of droplet size distribution. The micrographs demonstrated that the interfacial membrane in emulsions with 0.3% AG was more compact and stronger than that in the ones without AG. In general, our results revealed that AG promoted the adsorption of protein at the O/W interface and improved physical stability of the MP O/W emulsion.

Key words: myofibrillar protein, arabic gum, oil-in-water emulsions, physical stability