Effects of ultrasonication on the physicochemical properties of milk fat globules of Bubalus bubalis (water buffalo) under processing conditions: a comparison with shear-homogenization

Ultrasonication has been widely studied in bovine milk but the effects of ultrasound (US) on the buffalo's milk fat globules (MFG) are not well known yet. In this study, buffalo's milk samples were ultrasonicated at 20 kHz and physicochemical properties were assessed under different processing conditions. Shear homogenization was performed with 1188 J/mL energy density for the comparison. Results show that ultrasonication reduced the average volume-weighted mean diameter (D[4,3]) of MFG by 93% and increased the surface area by a factor of 8.5 compared to the native counterparts. The zeta-potential (ZP) of MFG are increased by ultrasonication compared to fresh milk (−26.37 vs. −18.22 mV) indicating better stability. Changing the pH of ultrasonicated milk to the isoelectric pH (pI) reduced the zeta-potential (ZP) by −19.8 mV and increased the (D[4,3]) > 0.4 mm indicating the gelation. The size of milk particles increased up to 76–586 μm and the ZP was reduced by 3.1 mV with the increase of ionic strength from 50 to 200 mM. Heating of milk at 90 °C for 30 min increased D[4,3] in US homogenized milk by 22%. Both ultrasonication and shear-homogenization increased the free saturated fatty acids by 2.75–3 g/100 g fat compared to raw buffalo's milk. Ultrasonication increased the gel hardness by 98% compared and shear-homogenized milks. The results of this study indicate that the ultrasonication reduced the size of buffalo's MFG up to sub-micron level with superior stability while improving (P < 0.05) the gels strength compared to shear-homogenization. Industrial relevance: Buffalo set-yoghurts made with unhomogenized milk exhibit higher syneresis and poor stability upon shear-induced breakdown, which are mainly due to the porous gel structure containing a large number of bigger fat globules. Under the large scale production, buffalo set-yoghurts are often fortified with dairy/non-dairy solids and stabilizers in order to prevent this problem. However, the use of some inexpensive, non-food grade alternatives are also reported in some parts of the world for the cottage or medium level production of buffalo yoghurts. In this work, it was shown that ultrasonication with the energy density of 1188 J/mL can be used to produce buffalo set-yoghurts with superior gel strength and therefore, can be used as an unconventional approach to improve the product quality