The invention discloses a
protein nanoparticle-
nanofiber composite material and a preparation method thereof, and belongs to the technical field of
food processing and
functional protein materials. The method comprises the following steps: (1) taking fresh
egg white, diluting and stirring to obtain uniform
egg white protein dispersion liquid; (2) performing
acylation modification on the
egg white protein dispersion liquid to increase surface negative charges and improve conformation flexibility; (3) performing controllable enzymolysis on the acylated egg white protein, so that part of
peptide chains of the acylated egg white protein are broken and
oligopeptide with self-
assembly capability is formed; and (4) carrying out heat treatment on the enzymolysis product, inducing the
peptide fragment to be self-assembled to form nano-particles while inactivating the
protease through heat treatment, further forming a nano-
fiber network dominated by a beta-folding structure, and finally obtaining the protein nano-particle-nano-
fiber composite
system. Through the synergistic effect of
acylation, enzymolysis and heat treatment, accurate conversion of protein from a natural spherical conformation to a functional
nanostructure is achieved, and the obtained
composite material has the
dispersion stability of particles and the network enhancement effect of fibers and has excellent foamability, emulsibility and gelling property.