Oil-in Water Vegetable Emulsions with Oat Bran as Meat Raw Material Replacers: Compositional, Technological and Structural Approach

Foods. 2022 Dec 22;12(1):40. doi: 10.3390/foods12010040.

Abstract

The unique composition and technological properties of some oat bran components (mainly protein and soluble fiber) and olive oil make them a good choice to form oil-in-water vegetable emulsions. The different concentrations of oat bran were studied to form olive oil-in water (O/W) emulsions to apply as a replacement for fat and meat. As a result, four O/W emulsions (OBE) were formulated with 10% (OBE10), 15% (OBE15), 20% (OEB20), and 30% (OBE30) oat bran concentrations and 40% olive oil, with the corresponding amount of water added for each O/W emulsion. Composition, technological properties (thermal stability, pH, texture), and lipid structural characteristics were evaluated. The results showed that low oat bran content (OEB10)-with a lower concentration of oat protein and β-glucans-resulted in an O/W emulsion with an aggregated droplet structure and lower thermal stability and hardness. These connections between composition, technology, and structural properties of olive O/W emulsions elaborated with oat bran could help in making the optimal choice for their potential application in the production of foods such as healthier meat products.

Keywords: bioactive compounds; meat replacer; oat bran; oil–in–water emulsion; olive oil; structural characteristics; technological properties.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by grant number PID2019-107542RB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, by the CSIC Intramural project (grant numbers 201470E073 and 202070E242), by CYTED (grant number 119RT0568; Healthy Meat network).