The yin and yang of emulsifiers

Kantha Shelke, Ingredients Editor

Perfectly whole, in the Chinese sense of the word, their dual nature helps reformulate for low-carbohydrate and trans fat-free claims.

Virtually every food company in the U.S. today is trying to meet the twin demands of changing consumer expectations and new federal regulations. Current emphases are on lowering carbohydrates for consumers and meeting imminent government regs on the labeling of trans fats.

Both require reformulation. One of the most important aspects of reformulation of traditional foods is understanding comprehensively the role functionality plays in creating these future foods and beverages. It's kept food processors busy who, in turn, increasingly are turning to their ingredient suppliers for innovation and healthier alternatives to meet market demands.

Emulsifiers are one of the most important tools that allow food developers to push the limits of food science and technology. They are becoming immensely popular with product developers. The have a split personality: one end of the molecule adheres to lipids, the other end adheres to water.  Hence their ability to "emulsify," to bridge and hold together water and oil or other difficult-to-mix liquids. Whoever coined the phrase "oil and water don't mix" wasn't familiar with emulsifiers.

Industrial food manufacturing processes may employ emulsifiers for this simple purpose, the mixing of two otherwise immiscible liquids, or for more advanced functionalities. These functionalities include creating desirable textures, enhancing the shelf life of baked products, modifying organoleptic attributes and by complexing with components like starch and protein to stabilize them.

Emulsification is the mixture of two normally immiscible liquids (e.g., oil and water) in which one is (colloidally) suspended in the other. In other words, one exists as tiny particles within the other.

Most foods and beverages are complex mixtures of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, water and air along with a variety of lesser components such as minerals, vitamins, and flavors. Modern food processing subjects these mixtures to a wide range of mechanical actions such as kneading, mixing, pumping, and extruding and exposes them a wide thermal range during baking, boiling, steaming, frying, and freezing to produce the tasty nutritious products that we call processed foods.

Remarkably, many foods have components with properties so distinct they conflict with those of the other components. The proverbial oil and water duo somehow manages to co-exist in many food systems , thanks to the mighty emulsifiers that enhance the compatibility of the contact surfaces of these conflicting materials. Emulsifiers, by acting as an interface, allow for the stable coexistence of mutually exclusive ingredients.

But emulsifiers have many other functional properties in addition to their ability to act as interfaces. These additional properties have helped them become essential components in many food formulations.

Low-carb applications

The low-carbohydrate explosion has done wonders for the emulsifier business. The Atkins Diet and similar ones have forced many mainstream food companies to reformulate familiar products or risk having them completely overlooked by faithful low-carb dieters.

Consumers find it particularly difficult to give up baked goods, pasta and sweet foods when they are on low-carbohydrate diets. As a result, food developers and processors are working harder than ever these days to make low-carbohydrate versions that taste like, look like, and feel like the original product, but which do not add glucose to the blood stream or pounds to the hips.

Lecithin, probably the most prolific of all emulsifiers and derived from soybean processing, is used as a natural emulsifier in its refined liquid form. De-oiling the natural form to produce powdered and granular lecithin has greatly extended its use in a variety of low-carb foods as a dough stabilizer.

Low-carbohydrate bread and cake formulations rely on inert starches and dietary fiber to reduce wheat flour (and thereby carbs). Eggs and egg-based ingredients serve to strengthen this otherwise fragile structure. But as market demand for eggs pushes prices higher, the emulsification properties of powdered lecithin make it an economical and nutritious egg replacer in many low-carbohydrate formulations.

The pizza category was one of the first to proactively reduce the simple carbohydrate content of its product to reduce customer attrition. With the focus on the pizza crust, initial efforts used a number of dietary fibers and inert materials such as resistant starches to help lower the carb count. However, the resulting products resembled soggy cardboard in taste and texture.

Savvy pizza producers reached for ingredients such as FibrOmega, a flaxseed-based stabilized fiber from Bioriginal of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, www.bioriginal.com. Its combination of soluble and insoluble fibers and emulsification from its omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids yielded a rich-tasting pizza crust that was low in simple carbohydrates and calories.