Effect of glycerol and vegetable oil on physicochemical properties of Arabic gum-based beverage emulsion

The effect of two emulsion components namely glycerol (0.5, 1 and 1.5% w/w) and vegetable oil (2, 3 and 4% w/w) on ζ-potential, conductivity, pH, apparent viscosity, fluid behavior, turbidity and cloud stability of orange beverage emulsion was investigated. The negatively charged ζ-potential significantly (p < 0.05) increased with increasing glycerol content. A slight increase in ζ-potential was observed by adding 2% (w/w) vegetable oil to the emulsion formulation, while it was slightly decreased when vegetable oil content was increased up to 4% (w/w). Apparent viscosity, pH and turbidity of orange beverage emulsions significantly (p < 0.05) increased when the concentration of glycerol or vegetable oil was increased. All prepared beverage emulsions behaved as non-Newtonian (i.e., pseudoplastic or shear thinning) fluids. The addition of different concentration levels of both supplementary emulsion components except for 0.5% (w/w) glycerol significantly (p < 0.05) improved the cloud stability of orange beverage emulsions. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.