High-intensity ultrasound assisted-emulsification using ionic liquids as novel naturally-derived emulsifiers for food industry applications

Over the last decade, conscious food consumption has been revolutionizing the food industry. The search for additives that meet concepts of naturalness, healthiness and sustainability represents one of the major challenges in food industry. The development of emulsifiers in the ionic liquid (IL) form using compounds that can be obtained from natural sources to replace conventional ones is a promising approach. In this work, we have reported the application of bio-based ILs derived from fatty acids (FAs) and choline (Ch) as novel emulsifiers to produce potential food-grade oil-in-water emulsions by pre-mixing (PM) or PM followed by high-intensity ultrasound (HIUS)-assisted process (PM + U). The effects of the type of IL, considering molecular structures of FAs (C18OOH or C18:1OOH) and vegetable oil concentration (30:70 or 70:30, oil:water ratio) to form and stabilize emulsions were evaluated. The study was focused on the following aspects: synthesis and characterization of ILs, and kinetic stability, droplet size and size distribution, optical microscopy, viscosity profile and rheological behavior of the emulsions. ILs presented high emulsifier ability, since some emulsions were stable after storage time of at least 30 days, being such stability related to the type of IL, oil concentration and emulsifying process. The observed behavior was associated to lower droplet size and/or emulsion viscosity. [Ch][C18OO] presented higher emulsifier ability than [Ch][C18:1OO], and this behavior was more evident at higher oil concentration. Emulsions obtained by PM presented phase separation after their preparation, whereas most of those prepared by PM + U were visually stable, being those containing higher oil concentration the formulations that presented higher viscoelasticity, with a gel like behavior. Therefore, bio-based ILs have promising application potential as emulsifiers, and their use to obtain high stable emulsions can be enhanced by using the HIUS technique.