A road map to droplet shapes

Related tags Liquid

Improving the texture of food products through a new emulsification
technology forms the focus of a recently launched EU-funded project
that will concentrate in particular on low-fat products

Improving the texture of food products through a new emulsification technology is the focus of a recently launched EU-funded project that will concentrate in particular on low-fat products.

Under the aegis of Prof. Anne-Marie Hermansson​ at the Swedish institute, the SIK-Institutet för Livsmedel och Bioteknik, researchers have set to work to develop a new technology that improves food emulsion quality that will ultimately provide the manufacturer with better opportunites to design the emulsion characteristics with the final product use in mind - for example margarines, dressings, fermented dairy products or soft drinks.

Several factors - such as viscosity and the sensory characteristics - influence the quality of an emulsion. Consequently, the oil type, the temperature, emulsifiers, oil / water ratio, and the size and shape of the water droplets are important.

The objective of the EU project QLK1-2000-01543 (structure processing) is to develop a new emulsification technology that improves the texture of, in particular, low-fat products by micro-machining in combination with flow processing.

According to the researchers, that have obtained a map of different drop shapes, the principle of this emerging technology is to deform the water droplets from the spherical form 'in an intelligent way and to conserve this new droplet shape obtained in the final emulsion'.

The deformation of the water phase drops has been carried out by exposing them to drag forces in a hyperbolic flow while their shape was fixed simultaneously by introducing gel formation of a biopolymer suspended in the water phase.

The droplet deforming flow has been generated in a four-roll mill (4-RM), with k-carrageenan as gelling agent (conservation of droplet form), locust bean gum to alter the drop viscosity, and different ions to regulate the gel strength, explain the scientists.

The researchers state that with the same type of flow, different shapes could be achieved with small process changes and with high reproducibility. The fixation of the drop features does not occur at the same time and position and the final shape of the produced drops could be graded into three classes, correlated to the position in the flow field where the drops were fixed.

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