Influences of the different chemical components in soybean soluble polysaccharide on the emulsifying performance of its conjugates formed with soybean protein isolate

Summary This work aimed to elucidate the relationship between the chemical components of soybean soluble polysaccharide (SSPS) and its Maillard reaction with soybean protein isolate (SPI). Enzymatic hydrolysis was used to specifically cleave the chemical components of SSPS. Neutral sugar side chain regions of SSPS were easier to conjugate with SPI than the backbone containing galacturonic acid. The modified SSPS with higher content of arabinose showed the highest degree of glycosylation (46.8%). SSPS‐SPI conjugates exhibited lower interfacial tension than SPI, fabricating emulsion with smaller droplets size and better emulsion stability. The improved emulsifying properties could be ascribed to two aspects: (i) a higher percentage of adsorbed protein at the interface to cover more oil droplet surface; (ii) thicker adsorbed layer thickness onto the droplet surface to provide stronger steric‐hindrance effect to prevent droplet coalescence.