In the presented study, we focused on studying the influence of different emulsifiers, weighting agents and conditions of homogenization and their combinations on the properties of emulsion, used for making soft drinks. We were monitoring the emulsion turbidity and stability, as well as the detected intensity, through the total surface area of the chromatographic peaks from volatile citrus aroma components, which we used in the emulsion. We designed the experiment using the Design Expert software and the design of experiments method. In the first phase of the experiment, we measured emulsion turbidity using a turbidimeter, emulsion droplet size with the particle size measuring equipment and the total surface area of the chromatographic peaks from volatile citrus aroma components, using the method of solid-phase micro-extraction of the sample headspace, with a gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. We evaluated the first phase results, using analysis of variance test (p = 0.05) and HSD test. Based on these results we chose eight combinations that best suited our predefined criteria. The second phase of the study was aimed at further narrowing the selection of the chosen eight combinations and verifying the stability of the emulsions in a soft drink. We carried out a simple ringing test and a sensory ranking test where we asked the assessors to rank the samples according to the perceived intensity of the citrus aroma. The results of the study showed three different combinations of the used emulsifiers, weighting agents and conditions of homogenization that best met our requirements for a stable, cloudy soft drink with an intense citrus aroma.
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