In this work, the rheological behaviour of emulsions (mayonnaises) stabilized by green banana pulp using the response surface methodology was studied. In addition, the emulsions stability was investigated. Five formulations were developed, according to design for constrained surfaces and mixtures, with the proportion, respectively: water/soy oil/green banana pulp: F1 (0.10/0.20/0.70), F2 (0.20/0.20/0.60), F3 (0.10/0.25/0.65), F4 (0.20/0.25/0.55) and F5 (0.15/0.225/0.625) .Emulsions rheological properties were performed with a rotational Haake Rheostress 600 rheometer and a cone and plate geometry sensor (60-mm diameter, 2º cone angle), using a gap distance of 1mm. The emulsions showed pseudoplastic behaviour and were adequately described by the Power Law model. The rheological responses were influenced by the difference in green banana pulp proportions and also by the temperatures (10 and 25ºC). The formulations with high pulp content (F1 and F3) presented higher shear stress and apparent viscosity. Response surface methodology, described by the quadratic model,showed that the consistency coefficient (K) increased with the interaction between green banana pulp and soy oil concentration and the water fraction contributed to the flow behaviour index increase for all emulsions samples. Analysis of variance showed that the second-order model had not significant lack-of-fit and a significant F-value, indicating that quadratic model fitted well into the experimental data. The emulsions that presented better stability were the formulations F4 (0.20/0.25/0.55) and F5 (0.15/0.225/0.625).
green banana pulp; emulsion; rheology; response surface methodology
