We’ve all found ourselves stuck at some point, trying to get a recipe to work. Sometimes, two liquids stubbornly refuse to mix, no matter how hard you try. Enter emulsifiers—the solution that helps both kitchen cooking and large-scale food manufacturing blend immiscible liquids. They’re the secret to mayonnaise existing, besides being essential to favourites like chocolate and ice cream!
Emulsifiers—or surfactants, to be very technical—are vital in food production and inseparable from modern food science. In an industry that’s ever so focused on efficiency, food manufacturers must rely on these ingredients to arrive at the perfect end product. To top it off, they serve numerous purposes and offer various advantages! Learn more about these highly convenient additives and how they work in this detailed blog.
What Are Emulsifiers?
Simply put, emulsifiers are food additives that have a chemical role in the food industry. As mentioned earlier, they are used to mix ingredients that don’t typically mix by dispersing one liquid into another. There’s more—emulsifiers maintain the stability of products, control crystallisation, and lower stickiness. Natural emulsifiers have been used historically in cheese, butter, and ice cream production. The mid-20th century saw the rise of synthetic emulsifiers, expanding their applications. Modern food emulsions (the mixtures of liquids stabilised by emulsifiers) are very complex systems—their stability depends on several factors, ranging from the nature of the surface materials to the salt content and pH.
Emulsifiers, while complex, offer significant benefits across a wide range of applications, including baked goods, dairy products, and nutraceuticals. Ongoing research and development are focused on ensuring the continued safety and optimisation of these valuable ingredients. As consumer trends shift towards healthier food products, food manufacturers should innovate to bypass potential issues in the future.
How Do Emulsifiers Work?
Having answered the question of what emulsifiers are, it’s time to break down the physical chemistry involved.
Surface-active compounds on an emulsifier consist of a hydrophilic end attracted to water and an oil-favouring lipophilic end composed of longer fatty acids. The emulsifier subsequently arranges itself to some degree at the air/water or oil/water interface, acting to lower surface or interfacial tension, respectively. Emulsifiers create a boundary that keeps oil and water droplets from blending while dispersing them amongst each other to form a homogenised emulsion.
An emulsion comes with a dispersed phase and a continuous phase. An emulsion’s dispersed phase is usually held by the continuous phase. Two emulsions are possible. Firstly, an oil-in-water emulsion—where water is the continuous phase, and oil is the dispersed phase. And a water-in-oil emulsion, where the roles are reversed.
Role of Emulsifiers in Food Production
While emulsifiers have various functions in food production, some of their standout roles include the following:
Improving Texture and Consistency
Emulsifiers can combine seemingly challenging liquids into a meaningful whole. They can make vegetable/animal fats or oils get along with aqueous solutions, giving us smooth, creamy textures found in mayonnaise, salad dressings, and margarine. By preventing the separation of ingredients, emulsifiers ensure a consistent, enjoyable eating experience. For instance, emulsifier complexes are known to control the firming of bread. Also, their addition to ice creams gives products that have smoother bodies and textures, can whip more easily, and have more stable foam structures. For a practical example, look no further than cheese. Various attempts back in the 90s and thereabouts were made to reduce the fat in cheese. However, these reduced-fat variants suffered from poor flavour and texture. Emulsifiers were found to operate like fat replacers by either improving the protein matrix’s water binding or forming mixed emulsifier-protein aggregates about the same size as the fat globules. The aggregates imitated the effect of fat and improved the texture of the cheese!
Enhancing Shelf Life
Adding emulsifiers to various foods can involve complex reactions depending on the ingredients. To simplify most of them, an emulsifier reduces the interfacial tension between immiscible ingredients, forming a protective layer around the different phases, dispersing them within each other, and preventing separation. The stability obtained helps maintain a homogeneous texture and the mixture’s integrity, giving a product more time on the shelves.
Boosting Efficiency in Manufacturing
Emulsifiers are multifunctional ingredients in some contexts. Bakery products are the best example of this claim—emulsifiers blend and emulsify ingredients, improve shortening properties, and also soften the crumb. By catering to several functions at once, emulsifiers streamline manufacturing processes and simplify the mixing and handling of ingredients. They can remove the need for extra steps, saving money and resources and creating uniform product outcomes.
Different Types of Emulsifiers
Emulsifiers can be obtained from natural products like plants. Or they can be synthetic substances created in laboratories, sharing similarities with natural emulsifiers.
Natural Emulsifiers
They’re naturally occurring ingredients like lecithin found in eggs and soybeans. Other common natural emulsifiers used in large-scale production are agar, carrageenan, guar gum, alginic acid, and cassia gum. (Natural emulsifiers are catching more manufacturers’ attention—the rise of the clean-label trend is leading to the growing demand for them!) In the kitchen, ingredients like mustard and honey can get the job done.
Synthetic Emulsifiers
Examples of synthetic emulsifiers are carboxymethylcellulose, various types of polysorbates, sorbitan monooleate, and sucrose acetate isobutyrate.
Common Applications of Emulsifiers
Emulsifiers have their fingerprints on practically most food applications. Baked goods (cakes, bread) owe their softness and shelf life to emulsifiers. Next in line is confectionery. They’re found in chocolates, controlling the viscosity and stopping bloom. Refrigerated items aren’t far behind. Emulsifiers affect dairy products like cheese and ice cream, moderating their texture and giving the desired mouthfeel. Other everyday products like sauces and dressings also involve emulsifiers, highlighting just how integral they are to our lives. Interestingly, chewing gums would not be as enjoyable as they are without emulsifiers—they provide a much-needed hydration effect, which maintains moisture and provides a consistent texture, ensuring the gum is chewable.
Symega can help you craft products with a superior texture, appearance, and flavour profile. We also provide increased shelf life, stabilisation of fat globules, and versatility in formulation! To know more, contact us here!
Make the Right Choices, Not Just the Easy Ones
The role of emulsifiers in modern food production is ever present and widespread. They define the texture and consistency of thousands of food products; they’re versatile, make products look appealing, distribute fat finely in some products, make others less sticky, and have a positive effect on shelf life. Whether it’s preventing ice cream from melting into a gooey mess or not allowing bread to spoil quickly, emulsifiers are a significant part of people’s food experiences and increase manufacturing efficiency by some distance.
Beyond aesthetics, innovations might lead to emulsifiers shaping healthier foods. Trends and customer sentiment could shake the segment as regulatory bodies and the food industry take a closer look at emulsifier safety and possibly bring about changes. Watch the space for developments so you stay ahead and give your customers safe, flavourful products.
FAQs
Emulsifiers are added in small quantities to food and are generally considered safe in those doses. (Note: Some products with multiple components can have various emulsifiers add up quickly) The FDA, European Commission, and other regulatory bodies constantly carry out risk assessments on food additives and evaluate their safety. As such, the emulsifiers approved for use are not a cause for concern. However, recent research has pointed out possible effects on the gut microbiome. The investigations stemmed from the idea that the soap-like action of emulsifiers makes the gut lining more vulnerable to the penetration of specific inflammatory microorganisms. One study concluded that numerous commonly used emulsifiers can promote intestinal inflammation by altering gut microbiota. Meanwhile, an animal study has highlighted that emulsifiers like carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate 80 are new colorectal cancer risk factors that need to be evaluated through clinical trials.
Any ingredient capable of stabilising food systems can potentially take up the role of an emulsifier. Enzymes like transglutaminase, under certain food processing conditions, can work adequately. Its cross-linking ability is of use in baking, dairy, fishing, and meat applications, from improving meat hardness to dough texture. (But beware—the enzyme has raised concerns like this.) Depending on the recipe, proteins can be used for their binding properties and strength, helping create products like bread. Casein, in particular, is suited for O/W emulsions due to its amphiphilic properties.
Emulsifiers significantly extend the shelf life of various foods. The complex chemistry involved in the emulsion process prevents the separation of ingredients and maintains the desired texture and appearance for longer periods. The outcomes? Reduced spoilage rates and minimising food waste.
Emulsifier research on health and sustainability goals is ongoing and driving the segment further. Technology is limiting in some aspects of current research, but tools like artificial intelligence could soon help us overcome particular challenges. Nanoemulsions are an area of continued interest. These emulsions have been suggested for edible food coatings, but the associated high concentrations of emulsifiers could be a problem. Other ideas that could expand to commercialisation are double emulsions and Pickering emulsions for the potential development of functional foods. Probabilities aside, one thing is sure: The future could see an increased push for more natural emulsifiers as consumers actively embrace healthy eating.
