Enhancing meat emulsion gels with soy protein fibril and red palm oil Pickering emulsions: The role of emulsification techniques in chicken fat substitution

The study investigated the properties of soy protein fibril-red palm oil Pickering emulsions produced through high-speed shear homogenization (HSH) and ultrasound-assisted emulsification (UAE), focusing on their effects as fat substitutes on the characteristics of myofibrillar protein and meat emulsion gels. Compared to the emulsion produced by HSH, the UAE-generated emulsion demonstrated enhanced storage stability, higher apparent viscosity, a more pronounced absolute zeta potential, and smaller droplet sizes. Replacing less than 50% of the fat did not significantly impact the hardness, springiness, gumminess, or chewiness of the myofibrillar protein emulsion gel. However, when increasing the fat replacement ratio to 75% resulted in a noticeable decline in cohesiveness, gumminess, and chewiness, complicating the formation of a solid gel. Both emulsions were capable of replacing 50% of the chicken fat in a chicken meat emulsion system without significantly compromising texture properties, with UAE-fabricated emulsion exhibiting increased gumminess, chewiness, and resilience. Moreover, the incorporation of Pickering emulsion reduced cooking loss and oil oxidation in the chicken meat emulsion system, with the UAE-fabricated emulsion showing superior control over oil oxidation compared to the HSH-fabricated emulsion over 15 days of storage.