Tribology as a Tool to Study Emulsion Behaviour in the Mouth - Food Colloids: Self-Assembly and Material Science - page 451

Chapter 31
Tribology as a Tool to Study Emulsion
Behaviour in the Mouth
D.M. Dresselhuis, 1,2 E.H.A. de Hoog, 1,3 M.A. Cohen Stuart 2
and G.A. van Aken 3
1 WAGENINGEN CENTRE FOR FOOD SCIENCES, P.O. BOX 557, 6700
AN WAGENINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS
2 LABORATORY OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY AND COLLOID
SCIENCE, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY AND RESEARCH CENTRE,
P.O. BOX 8038, 6700 EK WAGENINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS
3 NIZO FOOD RESEARCH B.V., P.O. BOX 20, 6710 BA EDE, THE
NETHERLANDS
31.1 Introduction
Fat is both appreciated and disliked for its presence in food - appreciated for
the unique sensation it gives to various food systems, but disliked for the
relatively high amount of calories it provides to the body. Therefore, much
interest exists in the development of low-fat products, which upon eating still
give rise to the desired sensation. This sensation is often referred to as 'creamy',
a term indicative of richness, high quality, and a pleasant sensation. 1,2
In general, food products are roughly developed following the lower part of
the scheme depicted in Figure 1. A product is engineered, which includes
optimizing the composition and the processing conditions in order to obtain a
physically and chemically stable food product. Subsequently, this product is
sensorially evaluated, which often leads to re-adjustment of the formulation
and/or processing conditions.
In the development of a food emulsion, one faces the challenge of retaining
the appreciated creamy sensation even when the product contains only a small
amount of fat. This development process can be rather time-consuming, since it
typically involves a trial-and-error approach. Generally, the influence of oral
processing on the food product is not considered, although the actual percep-
tion of food takes place in the mouth, i.e., during and after oral processing
(see Figure 1). By gaining more knowledge about the mechanisms involved in
fat perception, as well as about the physico-chemical processes taking place in
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