Increasing the oxidative stability of liquid and dried tuna oil-in-water emulsions with electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition technology.

Omega-3 Fatty acids have numerous health benefits, but their addition to foods is limited by oxidative rancidity. Engineering the interfacial membrane of oil-in-water emulsion droplets to produce a cationic and/or thick interface is an effective method to control lipid oxidation. Cationic and thick emulsion droplet interfacial membranes can be produced by an electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition technique resulting in droplets that are coated by multiple layers of emulsifiers. Tuna oil-in-water emulsion droplets coated by lecithin and chitosan produce cationic emulsion droplets that are more oxidatively stable than emulsions coated by lecithin alone. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was able to increase the oxidative stability of emulsions stabilized with lecithin and chitosan more effectively than mixed tocopherols. The combination of EDTA and mixed tocopherols was not more effective than EDTA alone suggesting that control of prooxidant metals was the most important antioxidant technology. The production of emulsion droplets coated with lecithin and chitosan could be an excellent technology for stabilization of oxidatively unstable lipids for use in a variety of food products.