Origin of Water Loss from Soy Protein Gels

Water holding (WH) of soy protein gels was investigated to identify which length scales are most contributing to WH when centrifugal forces are applied. More specifically, it was attempted to differentiate between the contributions of submicron and supramicron length scales. MgSO4 and MgCl2 salt specificities on soy protein aggregation (submicron contribution) were used to create different gel morphologies (supramicron contribution). Obtained results showed that the micrometer length scale is the most important contribution to WH of gels under the applied deformation forces. WH of soy protein gels correlated negatively with Young’s modulus and positively with recoverable energy. The occurrence of rupture events had only a limited impact on WH. The ease by which water may be removed from the gel, but not the total amount, seemed to be related to the initial building block size. These insights could be exploited in product development to predict and tune oral perception properties of (new) products.