Utilization of aquafaba as a natural emulsifier for a plant-based coffee whitener production

In this study, plant- based coffee creamers containing different ratios (8%, 8.5%, 9%, 9.5%, 10% w/w) of chickpea water (aquafaba) and maltodextrin (0.2%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% w/w) were developed and the physical, chemical and sensory properties of these emulsions were investigated. The water phase (90% w/w) of the emulsions was formed by mixing aquafaba and maltodextrin in different proportions. Palm kernel oil was used to form the oil phase (10% w/w) of the emulsions. The structural stability of the obtained model coffee whitener emulsions was observed. Following the observation, sensory evaluation of coffee samples containing coffee whitener emulsions, which have more stable structure, was carried out against commercial coffee cream. As a result of the stability observations of the emulsions, creaming indices were determined according to the amount of serum separation occurring in their structures. According to the obtained data, it was concluded that the addition of maltodextrin to the structure of model coffee whitener emulsions made the emulsion structure more stable. According to the stability results; it was determined that emulsion formulations containing 9% aquafaba- 1% maltodextrin and 8.5% aquafaba- 1.5% maltodextrin had a 0% creaming index similar to commercial coffee whitener. The fact that these emulsions with high stability have the highest percentage of maltodextrin among the 5 emulsion formulations tested, supports the conclusion that maltodextrin has a positive contribution to the structure. According to the particle size values of the emulsions, it was observed that the maltodextrin in the structure had a reducing effect on the volume average diameter of the droplets. It was concluded that the protein- polysaccharide complex in the composition of the emulsions increased the coating effect of aquafaba and the stabilizing power of the structure. When the sensory analysis of the coffee samples with the model coffee whitening emulsion is carried out; it was determined that the coffee sample with 8.5% aquafaba- 1.5% maltodextrin content had the closest acceptability score compared to the commercial coffee cream. Thus, it has been demonstrated that aquafaba is suitable to be utilized as a natural emulsifier in the formulation of plant- based coffee creamers.