Interfacial stabilization using complexes of plant proteins and polysaccharides

In view of their favourable sustainability profile, plant proteins are gaining interest as replacement ingredients for applications that are traditionally dominated by animal proteins such as the stabilization of emulsions and foams. For animal proteins it has been extensively demonstrated how the complexation of proteins with polysaccharides can be exploited to modulate interfacial stabilization. Many plant proteins are much less hydrophilic and often cannot be easily extracted from the raw plant material in their native state. This gives rise to a new set of challenges and opportunities when considering the use of protein–polysaccharide complexes for interfacial stabilization. Here we review the recent literature on the use of complexes of plant proteins with polysaccharides for interfacial stabilization. This includes the use of composite plant protein/polysaccharide nanoparticles and microparticles, plant protein–polysaccharide complex coacervates and plant protein–polysaccharide multilayer emulsions. While on the one hand the lower solubility of the plant proteins presents a challenge, by association with very hydrophylic polysaccharide, very strong amphiphilicity is obtained that can lead good stabilization of oil–water and air–water interfaces.