Oil‐in‐water emulsion activity and stability of short‐term retrograded starches depend on starch molecular size, amylose content, and amylopectin chain length

Abstract BACKGROUND Natural emulsifiers are increasingly preferred by the food industry to meet consumers' demand for ‘clean‐label’ emulsion products. In the present study, 10 short‐term retrograded starches with unique molecular structures were explored to examine the relationships between starch structures and their ability to form stable oil‐in‐water emulsions. RESULTS Waxy maize starch showed the largest value of contact angle and conductivity of emulsion, whereas potato and lentil starch showed the lowest value of contact angle and conductivity of emulsion, respectively. Emulsion prepared by rice starch showed the lowest, whereas that of sweet potato starch showed the highest value of viscosity. Consequentially, the emulsion stabilized with waxy maize and tapioca starch showed the smallest and less polydisperse droplets, resulting in a much higher emulsifying index. On the other hand, emulsion prepared with potato starch showed the highest stability compared to other starches. Correlation analysis suggested that starches with larger molecular size, a lower amylose content and shorter amylopectin short chains had a higher emulsification ability, whereas the amount of starch molecular interactions formed during short‐term retrogradation revealed no obvious linking to emulsion performances. CONCLUSION These findings provided food industry with exciting opportunities to develop ‘clean‐label’ emulsions with desirable properties. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.