The application of agar oligosaccharides in directly acidified milk drinks.

In the present work, the influence of agar oligosaccharide (AO) on the stability of directly acidified milk drinks (DAMDs) was investigated. The experimental results showed that the DAMDs stabilized by AO in combination with anionic polysaccharide had smaller particle diameter values and lower sedimentation fractions than that stabilized by the commercial reference under the same pH conditions. Cryo-SEM images showed a remarkable density porous network organized by agar oligosaccharides based polysaccharide mixtures. It revealed that the stabilizing mechanism of polysaccharide mixtures containing agar oligosaccharides was dominated not only by electrostatic interactions between casein particles and anionic polysaccharides, but also by the three-dimensional network structure provided by agar oligosaccharides molecules, which could separate casein micelles and hold particles in suspension for a long storage time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]