Combined effects of limited enzymatic hydrolysis and high hydrostatic pressure on the structural and emulsifying properties of rice proteins

The combined effects of limited enzymatic hydrolysis and high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment on the structural and emulsifying properties of rice proteins (RPs) were investigated. Alcalase exhibited higher hydrolysis efficiency than papain. Through alcalase-catalyzed hydrolysis and HHP treatment, emulsifying activity index (EAI) and emulsifying stability index (ESI) of RPs were improved from 14.58 m2/g and 22.54 min to 29.93 m2/g and 43.35 min, respectively. The content of random coil in RPs increased, while the content of α-helix decreased. HHP at 300 MPa led to the highest surface hydrophobicity (H0) and fluorescence intensity. The enzymatic hydrolysis-HHP (300 MPa) modified RPs could form an oil-in-water emulsion with a d4,3 of 0.347 nm, ζ-potential of −36.4 mV, and creaming index of 10.5% after 7 days storage. This work sheds light on employing limited enzymatic hydrolysis and HHP to modify RPs for better application in emulsion-based food products.