Characterization of β-lactoglobulin gels induced by high pressure processing

In recent years, high pressure processing (HPP) has been used in the food industry as an innovative technology to improve gel properties of various kinds of proteins, including β‑lactoglobulin, casein, soy protein isolate, surimi, mytolin and so on. It was found that HPP could change the structure of protein, which could cause protein denaturation and aggregation and three-dimensional network structures were formed through disulfide bonds, electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interaction, hydrogen bonds and others. β‑lactoglobulin is the main component of whey protein, which has been widely used in the food industry as gelling agents. β‑lactoglobulin gels could be used as a wall material and applied to the delivery system of functional components such as riboflavin. The objective of the current study was to investigate the properties of β-Lg gels formed through HPP directly, focusing on the effects of pressure, protein concentration and pH on the rheological properties, texture profile, protein secondary structure and microstructure of β-Lg gels.