Fabrication and characterization of Pickering emulsions stabilized by desalted duck egg white nanogels and sodium alginate

Abstract BACKGROUND The waste of salted egg white resources has always been a serious problem in the food industry. In this current study, we report on a kind of Pickering emulsion system, which was stabilized by duck egg white nanogels (DEWNs) and sodium alginate (SA), followed by which this system was crosslinked by calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) via controlling the gluconolactone (GDL) concentrations, aiming to open up a promising route for making full use of these protein resources. RESULTS The droplet size of the emulsion exhibited a reduction with an increase in SA concentrations, indicating that higher negative charges and steric hindrance was useful for a stable emulsion system. Meanwhile, the result of rheology measurement showed that storage modulus ( G ′) values were higher than loss modulus ( G ″) values of the samples at higher GDL concentration, revealing the formation of elastic gel‐like networks in the system, which was fabricated by SA and Ca 2+ released by the CaCO 3 particles. The gel‐like network structure in the continuous phase improved both the freeze–thaw and thermal stability of the obtained Pickering emulsion system. Encouragingly, the Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs, φ = 0.75) stabilized by DEWN/SA 3 ‐GDL 3 were prepared, which could be stored at 4 °C for at least 30 days without oiling‐off and creaming. CONCLUSION These findings not only develop a green ultra‐stable Pickering emulsion system but also extend the potential commercial applications of duck egg white proteins in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.