Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 28
Instant Emulsions
Tim Foster,
1
Alison Russell,
2
Don Farrer,
2
Matt Golding,
1
Roger Finlayson,
1
Anna Thomas,
1
Dan Jarvis
1
and Eddie Pelan
1
1
UNILEVER FOOD AND HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE,
OLIVIER VAN NOORTLAAN,
3133AT VLAARDINGEN, THE
NETHERLANDS
2
LIFE SCIENCES, COLWORTH PARK, SHARNBROOK, BEDFORD-
SHIRE MK44 1LQ, UK
28.1 Introduction
Instant food products are well known; some examples are instant topping
powders, instant mousses and instant soups. These are generally based upon
the principle of either dilution of a stock composition (soup) or dissolving a
powder in hot water (soup or dressing). For other food types such as fatty
spreads, however, such instant products are not widely known.
Spreads that are generally suitable for use in frying, baking and spreading
(on bread, toast or the like) have been available for decades. Almost all
emulsion-based food products are sold in a ready-to-use form. With the
consequent need to distribute as such, there is a requirement for thermal
processing routes (pasteurization/UHT treatment), with the additional need for
chilled or frozen distribution to ensure appropriate microbiological stability.
As such products are generally offered to the consumer in the form of a final
product in a tub or wrapper, they have the disadvantage of having limited
storage stability. In particular, storage at elevated temperatures (20-351C) can
lead to phase separation due to the melting of the continuous fat phase. The
melting of the fat at such temperatures is required for good eating performance,
and is also dictated to some extent by the melting temperature of the trigly-
ceride fat crystals required to structure and stabilize the emulsion during
processing and chilled storage.
This paper describes a shelf-stable solution to this problem in terms of a base
composition suitable for consumer preparation of a spreadable butter substi-
tute. The base composition is such that the consumer should be able to create
the final emulsion by mixing with oil and water in a simple - and preferably
413
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