A Novel Confinement Space Catalytic Strategy for High-Quality Protein Foam with Excellent Stability and High Foaming Volume at Low Shear Rate

Abstract

The foam properties of egg white protein play a significant role in the food industry for pastry product, affecting their quality and price. However, the foam formed by the continuous injection of air into egg white protein molecules will continuously collapse due to thermodynamic instability. The molecular weight and molecular structure of protein play an important role in foaming capacity and stability. Herein, the magnetic papain/nanoflower (MPNFs) were used to specifically hydrolyze the protein through confinement space effects. The egg white protein hydrolyzed by MPNFs showed more appropriate molecular weight and higher hydrophobicity compared to that hydrolyzed by free papain. The microscopic analysis demonstrated that the foam of egg white protein hydrolyzed by MPNF2-40 had lowest size and standard deviation, significantly improving the foaming ability and foam stability compared with the untreated protein and the protein hydrolyzed by free papain.

Keywords: Nanoflowers, Papain, Confinement space effect, Foam stability