Effects of oil droplets on physical and sensory properties of O/W emulsion agar gel

Effects of oil droplets in an agar gel matrix were investigated by mechanical analyses and sensory evaluation. The results for compressive and puncture properties were expressed in terms of relative values. All compressive properties; stress, strain and compressive energy of emulsion gels, as obtained by compression tests, decreased with both increases of oil droplet size and oil volume fraction. The stress, strain and energy of the emulsion gels obtained by puncture tests did not change with an increase in oil droplet size. Results of sensory evaluation showed that the sample containing small oil droplets was harder than that with large oil droplets. On the other hand, the large oil droplet sample was oilier than that with small oil droplets. The sensory evaluations for hardness and oiliness of emulsion gels did not exhibit significant relations to most of the properties of mechanical analyses.