Lipid oxidation in milk, yoghurt, and salad dressing enriched with neat fish oil or pre-emulsified fish oil

Abstract: This study compared the oxidative stabilities of fish-oil-enriched milk, yoghurt, and salad dressing and investigated the effects on oxidation of adding either neat fish oil or a fish-oil-in-water emulsion to these products. Milk emulsions had higher levels of a fishy off-flavor and oxidized faster, as determined by the peroxide value and volatile oxidation products, than fish-oil-enriched yoghurt and dressing, despite the fact that dressings had a higher fish oil content and were stored at room temperature. Additionally, fish-oil-enriched yoghurt generally had higher oxidative stability than fish-oil-enriched dressings, irrespective of the mode of fish oil addition. Yoghurt thus seemed to be a good delivery system of lipids containing n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Different effects of adding fish oil either as neat fish oil or as a fish-oil-in-water emulsion were observed for milk, yoghurt, and dressing. Yoghurt and dressing enriched with neat fish oil were more stable than those enriched with a fish-oil-in-water emulsion, whereas milk enriched with neat fish oil was less stable than milk enriched with the fish-oil-in-water emulsion. Overall, it seemed that application of neat fish oil was a good option for preserving the final quality in yoghurt and dressings, but a pre-emulsion may still be considered for the fish oil enrichment of certain food products, for example, milk. Keywords: Fish oil; lipid oxidation; oil-in-water emulsion; n-3 PUFA; milk; yoghurt; salad dressing.