The Effects of Emulsifiers Application on Characteristics of Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is a semisolid emulsion that is made by mixing oil with mustard, egg yolk, vinegar and is sensitive to spoilage due to its high polyunsaturated fatty acids content. The amount of oil and egg yolk added, viscosity, water quality, the volume of oil and aqueous phase, method of mixing and temperature affect the stability of mayonnaise. Phase inversion occurs when the emulsion changes from the oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion to the water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion. Egg yolk as an emulsifier has surface-active fractions such as livetin, lipovitellin, lipovitellenin that prevent coalescing and improve the texture. Phospholipid lecithin, proteins, and lipoproteins are known to be the most important to the emulsion forming properties of egg yolk. Other emulsifying agents include animal proteins, vegetables protein isolates, modified starches and gums which can be effectively used as food emulsion stabilizers because of their capacity to reduce the interfacial tension between hydrophobic and hydrophilic components. Temperature, pH and NaCl are effective on viscoelasticity of mayonnaise emulsion. Emulsifiers increase the prevalence of metabolic diseases, specially type 1 and 2 diabetes, obesity and irritable bowel disease. Currently the tendency of the consumers to purchase the food products with low fat and low energy is led to reformulation that often requires moving from one sort of emulsifier to another. In this study, different emulsifiers and their effects on the characteristics of mayonnaise were reviewed.