INTRODUCTION
Vegetable protein and particularly pea protein try to find a way
of valorization faced to animal protein. The share of vegetable
proteins used in food ingredients is only 30%, and Europe
imports 70% of its needs. Plant proteins are really an alternative
for future generations for several reasons: decrease reliance on
imports, require 8 times less fossil energy to be produced,
diversification as market is monopolized by soybean.
Protein emulsifiers can act as surface active agents and are
widely used in the food, cosmetic and biomaterials industries.
Pea protein tends to replace gluten as a stabilizer in snacks and
now reduce market exposure to fluctuating egg costs by using
pea protein as egg replacement in baked goods and pastas.
Pea protein price is twice lower than milk protein but still
greater than soybean. Now the market is monopolized by
soybean but alternative solutions tend to emerge.
In this application note, we propose to evaluate the
performance in terms of emulsifier of a pea protein compared
to a reference sodium caseinate in an o/w model emulsion. We
propose to use a technique based on Static Multiple Light
Scattering to determine two crucial parameters: initial size
droplet in the bulk and physical stability.
