Investigation on appearance, texture, and molecular structure of heat-alkali synergistically induced egg white gel

To investigate the effect of heat-alkali synergistical induction on egg white gels, the gels formed from fresh duck egg whites were induced by heating in a water bath at 50 °C, 55 °C, 60 °C and 65 °C for 10 min, followed by the addition of NaOH at concentrations of 4.5 %, 5.0 %, 5.5 %, and 6 % were investigated at the level of appearance, texture, and molecular structure in this study. The appearance, physical and chemical character, textural properties, and molecular structure comprehensive investigation concluded that alkali induction caused heat-induced egg white protein to continue to be denatured, the degree of transparency was increased, part of the free water was converted to bound water, the intermolecular repulsion increased, the microscopic pores increased. The proteins in egg white continued to be crosslinked to form a three-dimensional network structure, creating a stable gel structure.