Ovalbumin, an outstanding food hydrocolloid: Applications technofunctional attributes, and nutritional facts, A systematic review

Abstract

Ovalbumin is the major protein of egg-white. As a natural, biocompatible, non-toxic biopolymer, ovalbumin has successfully been involved in numerous food and pharmaceutical applications. The unique structural features of ovalbumin were described in this review. The separation mechanism of this protein along with its current applications as a gelling agent and emulsion/foam stabilizer plus its utilization as a natural polymer for designing drug/bioactive encapsulating systems were overviewed. Being allergenic has been considered as the most important challenge for the widespread use of this outstanding protein. Thus, ovalbumin allergenicity and the available solutions to tackle this undesirable characteristic were the focus of the last section of this review. Ovalbumin, as an abundant protein, demonstrated to be a potent nature-inspired polymer for designing well-developed 3-D gel structures and stabilizing emulsions/foams. Moreover, ovalbumin was demonstrated to be a great candidate for participating in electrostatic/conjugate binding with polysaccharides to provide more excessive novel features. Besides, Its biodegradability/biocompatibility opened new horizons to ovalbumin applications as an ample carrier for sensitive bioactives/drugs. However, such outstanding applications have been restricted by ovalbumin allergenicity. The reviewed literature revealed that ovalbumin conjugation with different polyphenolic components plus its treatment with various thermal/non-thermal processing approaches have great capability in eradicating/declining this adverse feature.