A Raman spectroscopic study of meat protein/lipid interactions at protein/oil or protein/fat interfaces

Summary Structural changes in proteins of meat, FC (fat cream layers) and OC (soya bean oil cream layers) were studied by Raman spectroscopy. Results revealed that adsorption of proteins to the cream layers resulted in a maximum scattering change from 1657 to 1661 cm −1 , the intensity of amide I was significantly increased ( P < 0.05), the percentages of secondary structures of proteins in the raw meat and meat cream layers were significantly different ( P < 0.05), the bands near 540 and 475 cm −1 were significantly ( P < 0.05) higher in intensities in the soya bean oil cream layer samples compared to raw meat alone, the normalised intensity of the tryptophan band near 758 cm −1 , from 0.52 in the raw meat to 1.11 (fat cream layer) or 0.72 (soya bean oil cream layer). These results indicated that disulphide bonds, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding were of the main interactions observed in proteins and lipids at the emulsion interface.