High-pressure homogenization lowers water vapor permeability of soybean protein isolate-beeswax films.

Soybean-protein isolate (SPI) has excellent film-forming capacity. However, the water vapor permeability of SPI film is high, which will cause the moisture lose of packaged products. The effect of high-pressure homogenization (HPH) on the water vapor permeability of SPI-beeswax films was evaluated. The HPH was effective at lowering the water vapor permeability of SPI-beeswax films to about 50% of the control. The HPH reduced the particle size of films and made their matrix more compact. The HPH improved the hydrophobicity of SPI-beeswax films. For the first time, we proved that the HPH improved the bound-beeswax content in SPI-beeswax films. The bound beeswax was effective at lowering the water vapor permeability of films rather than the free beeswax in the film matrix. In summary, the HPH lowered water vapor permeability of SPI-beeswax films by reducing their particle size and raising their hydrophobicity and bound-beeswax content.