Beeswax: A potential self-emulsifying agent for the construction of thermal-sensitive food W/O emulsion

Fabrication of food-grade water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions without surfactant, as the primary substitutes of trans-fat and saturated fat, was still a significant challenge in food science. A facial method has been adopted to fabricate W/O emulsions at 20 °C. The obtained emulsion had long-time stability, and there was no apparent phase separation or oiling-out after 60 days of storage. In this system, beeswax served as a stabilizer for both oleogels and oleogel-based emulsions. The sol-gel melting temperature of the oleogel was 37 ± 0.5 °C by regulating beeswax content to 4% w/w, and then the oleogel was used to fabricate W/O emulsion with the droplet diameter of around 9 μm. Thermo-reversible and thixotropic properties of oleogels were both retained for emulsions. Furthermore, both oleogels and oleogel-based emulsions had compact gel-like structures. The self-emulsifying W/O emulsions without surfactant would have great potential applications in food industry, pharmaceutical industry and feed industry.