Fabrication and characterization of food-grade pickering high internal emulsions stabilized with β-cyclodextrin

Abstract The Pickering high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) have the potential applications as solid fat substitutes and nutraceutical carriers in foods. The search of edible particle stabilizers is always a hot spot in food research. In this work, we introduce for the first time the application of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as a particle stabilizer for Pickering HIPEs with sunflower seed oil as dispersed phase. It was found that the oil-in-water (O/W) Pickering HIPEs could be fabricated at the oil phase volume fraction (ϕ) of 75% (v/v) and β-CD concentration (c) of 0.5–2.5% (w/v). The microstructure observation of HIPEs indicated that β-CD not only played the emulsifying role on the oil-water interface, but also prevented the coalescence of oil droplets of HIPEs through its 3D network in aqueous phase. With the increasing β-CD concentration, the oil droplet size of HIPEs declined while their mechanical properties gradually strengthened, which coincided with their centrifugation stabilities. The light stability of lutein against UV irradiation could be enhanced by encapsulation into these HIPEs, and the protective effects of HIPEs were close at all test β-CD concentrations. The findings are helpful for the development of food-grade Pickering HIPEs.