Fibrillar structures in mixed systems

Fibrillar structures are important structuring elements for food products. Understanding the behaviour of fibrillar structures in complex food systems is essential for successful industrial applications. This thesis presents the behaviour of two different fibrillar structures, i.e. whey protein isolate (WPI) fibrils and bacterial cellulose (BC) microfibrils in mixtures under various conditions. The WPI fibrils are prepared from WPI and the BC microfibrils are extracted from commercial available ‘Nata de Coco’ by high-energy de-agglomeration. In Chapter 1, a general introduction is given, where we introduce two different fibrillar structures that were studied in this thesis. Also, the aim and the outline of the thesis are presented. In Chapter 2, 3, 4 and 5, the behaviour of mixtures containing WPI and BC microfibrils under different conditions are investigated. By varying the concentration ratios, pH, NaCl concentration and further applying heating treatment, their physico-chemical properties in mixed solutions, mixed solutions after heating and further heat-induced mixed gels are investigated and characterized at both pH 2 and pH 7. In general, both mixing WPI and BC microfibrils without heating and subsequently applying heating treatment lead to stable and homogeneous mixtures at pH 7, as long as BC microfibril concentration is above a critical value. Microscopic images showed that the WPI aggregates and BC microfibrils co-existed in the system. WPI denatured and aggregated in the mixture in the same way as when it is heated alone. Upon gelation, the WPI and BC microfibrils form a duplex gel consisting of two independent and homogeneous networks spanning the whole system. At pH 2, the WPI and BC microfibrils also form stable and homogeneous mixtures in the liquid state, both before and after heating. Microscopic images showed two fibrillar structures that are uniformly and independently present. Upon gelation at higher WPI concentration, a bi-fibrillar gel is form