Gum Arabic (GA), a natural plant extract, is frequently used for the preparation and stabilization of flavor emulsions that is commonly used in soft drink and flavored beverage industry. This study aimed to reduce the amount of GA in some flavor model emulsions for cost effectiveness and studying the effect of that on the stability of these emulsions against gravitational separation during storage. Five flavor model emulsions were formulated using pure citral and cinnamic aldehyde and their mixtures at different weight ratios. Results indicated that a flavor/gum ratio 1:1 or 1:0.5 was not able to stabilize the particle size of all emulsions which is manifested by increase in size by many folds during storage. Similarly, four of the flavor model emulsions showed instability behavior (creaming or sedimentation) toward gravitational separation at the same flavor/gum ratios.
However, only one flavor model emulsion out of the five models showed a high stability against gravitational separation at flavor/gum ratio 1:1 or even 1:0.5. That emulsion model was characterized by having a density matching (similarity) between its dispersed flavor phase and its continuous water phase. This indicates the possibility of formulating some flavor emulsions with reduced amounts of gum Arabic only by matching the density between the flavor phase and the continuous phase of the emulsion.