Encapsulation of β-carotene in CNFs Stabilized Pickering Emulsions: Comparative Study between Ultrasound Process and High Pressure Homogenization

This work investigated the stabilization mechanisms and β-carotene encapsulation characteristics of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) stabilized Pickering emulsions, comparing different emulsification processes. For the 48 days storage, Pickering emulsions (PE) made by ultrasounds (US) and employed at least 2.0 wt.% CNFs as emulsifiers/stabilizers has obvious cream stabilization, and PE made by high pressure homogenization (HPH) and employed at over 1.2 wt.% CNFs can have rather excellent stabilization. The stabilization of HPH emulsions which was superior to that of US emulsions mainly relied on steric stabilization of CNFs space networks. Although the β-Carotene encapsulation efficiency of US emulsions was higher than that of HPH emulsions when the CNFs concentration was over 1.2 wt.%, the β-Carotene retention rate of US emulsions was obviously lower than that of HPH emulsions. So, the internal space structure of CNFs stabilized Pickering emulsions made by HPH was conducive to stabilizing emulsion and protecting bioactive molecule.