The freeze-thaw stability of flavor high internal phase emulsion and its application to flavor preservation and 3D printing

•Flavor HIPEs stabilized by GOS-GCP owned freeze–thaw stability.•Flavor HIPEs could be used as food-grade 3D printing inks.•HIPEs preserved the encapsulated flavor substances after 5 freeze–thaw cycles.•HIPEs stabilized with litsea cubeba oil had flexible gel-like network structure. Volatilization of flavor substances may reduce consumers' perception of flavor, and the research on preservation of flavor substances by high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) under freeze–thaw conditions is still blank. Herein, flavor HIPEs prepared by adding more than 15% litsea cubeba oil in the oil phase could be used as food-grade 3D printing inks, and showed better stability after 5 freeze–thaw cycles, which could be interpreted as the reduced ice crystal formation, more stable interface layer, and more flexible gel-like network structure resulting from the protein binding to flavor substances. The constructed HIPEs system in this study could preserve the encapsulated flavor substances perfectly after 5 freeze–thaw cycles. Overall, this study contributes a food-grade 3D printing ink, and provides a new method for the preservation of flavor substances under freezing conditions and expands the application range of flavor HIPEs in food industry.