pH shifting treatment of egg yolk granules /salted ovalbumin mixed gels: Reassembled of egg yolk granules effects on heat-induced amorphous aggregates

In this study, we propose three methods of acidic pH shifting of egg yolk granules (EYGs) to investigate effects of EYGs structure on properties of EYGs-salted ovalbumin (SO) gels. Different pH parameters affect protein unfolding behavior, as well as assembly of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and phosvitin during acidification. The main mechanism was a change in the microenvironment of hydrophobic amino acid residues and new hydrogen bonds, which induced the reassembly. Besides, low-content EYGs increased the mixed gel network structure density, cohesiveness (0.12–0.14) and chewiness (29.46–49.11). While mixed gels with high content EYGs had higher hardness and recovery rate, and were more tightly bound to water molecules. EYGs-4-6 exhibited greater hydrogen bonding forces, which could lead to a more rigid network and greater potential for use as an active filler. Our study tracked the trajectory of pH-shifting preparations of reassembled EYGs while providing new insight into nutritional value of SO gel.