Food Emulsifiers and Stabilizers - Food Shelf Life Stability: Chemical, Biochemical, and Microbiological Changes - page 215

TABLE 7.3 (continued)
Classification of Emulsifying Agents

C. Other Nitrogenous Bases
1. Nonquaternary bases (e.g., guanidine, thiuronium salts, etc.).
2. Quaternary bases.
D. Non-nitrogenous Bases
1. Phosphonium compounds.
2. Sulfonium compounds, etc.
III. NONIONIC
A. Ether Linkage to Solubilizing Groups
B. Ester Linkage
C. Amide Linkage
D. Miscellaneous Linkages
E. Multiple Linkages
IV. AMPHOTERIC (SWITTERIONIC)
A. Amino and Carboxy
1. Nonquaternary
2. Quaternary
B. Amino and Sulfuric Ester
1. Nonquaternary
2. Quaternary
C. Amino and Alkane Sulfonic Acid
D. Amino and Aromatic Sulfonic Acid
E. Miscellaneous Combinations of Basic and Acidic Groups

V. WATER-INSOLUBLE EMULSIFYING AGENTS

A. Ionic Hydrophilic Group

Food emulsifiers must comply with the non-toxicity, non-carcinogenic, and non-
allergenic requirements and must be approved by the different health authorities in
the different countries in which they are used, and within the different applications
in which they are added. Only a few families of emulsifiers can be used in food,
some because of health regulations and some because of practical aspects. For exam-
ple, ionic emulsifiers may be of limited value in the presence of acids or bases, since
they are susceptible to chemical modifications and loss of surface activity. Therefore,
few ionic emulsifiers are used by the food industry. Attempts were made to group
the food emulsifiers into two categories: (1) naturally occurring surfactants, including
proteins (from vegetable, marine, and animal sources), chemically and enzymatically
modified proteins, glycolipids, polysaccharide hydrocolloids (from various sources),
and naturally occurring small molecular weight surfactants (like lecithins, monoglyc-
erides, and saponins); and (2) synthetic surfactants. The synthetic surfactants permit-
ted for food applications are mostly derived from fatty acids or alcohols, and are
esters of the fatty chains and hydrophilic functional groups like polyol, glycol,
sorbitol, sucrose, acetic, lactic, succinic, tartaric, citric, and polyethyleneglycols. It
is difficult to group the synthetic emulsifiers into one group. The way we have chosen
to discuss them is according to their complexity and frequency of use.