This study was carried out to optimize foaming preparation conditions for Artemia biomass using the three-level Box–Behnken experimental design of Response Surface Methodology. Three independent variables, namely, water/ Artemia ratio (WAR) (2/1, 4/1 and 6/1), egg albumin (EA) (9.2, 12.2 and 15.2%), and xanthan gum (XG) concentration (0.1, 0.24 and 0.38%), together with three dependent variables characterizing the foam stability, including foam expansion volume (EV), foam density (FD), and drainage volume (DV) were optimized. Multiple regression analyses were applied to analyze the relationship between dependent variables (EV, FS, and DV) and three independent variables (WAR, EA, and XG) as indicators of foaming capacity and foam stability. In addition, simultaneous optimization of multiple responses has also been applied. The optimal combination of WAR was 4.6 (v/w), EA = 13.5%, and XG = 0.25% which gave the maximum foam expansion 293.4%, minimum FD 0.27 g/mL, and volume drainage of at least 0.7 mL. The validated values were found to be very close to the experimental values.

Key words: Artemia, albumin, xanthan gum, foam properties, optimization