The yin and yang of emulsifiers

Recent challenges impacting ingredient manufacturers and food processing companies over the next five years reflect concerns consumers have in relation to religion and culture, health and nutrition, and safety according to a study by Leatherhead Food International, Surrey, England. Here are some emulsifiers just coming out of the labs that answer some of these demands

Canola Proteins

Canola protein is a rising star in the low-carb genre from Burcon of Vancouver, British Columbia. The ingredient company has licensed canola proteins , Puratein and Supertein , to ADM to seek FDA approval. ADM is building on these canola proteins' superior nutritional and functional properties as alternatives to soy and wheat proteins, especially in the low-carb market. Canola protein has been demonstrated as an emulsifying agent to create mayonnaise, and it has the potential to replace whey, gelatin and casein in several applications , offering food processors tremendous cost advantages, since plant-based ingredients are less expensive than animal-derived materials.

Vitamin F

Dutch company Belovo Egg Products recently added F to the alphabet of vitamins. Vitamin F describes a group of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are essential for health. They include DHA, EPA and GLA. Vitamin F is manufactured as a lipid nano-emulsion , its rapid uptake is ideal for supplementing infant and elderly diets. The emulsified product consists of essential fatty acids encapsulated in egg phospholipid micelles,a formulation designed to mimic as closely as possible the characteristic emulsified state of human milk.

Alternan

 Price fluctuations with gum arabic compelled USDA/Agricultural Research Service scientists to produce alternan from sugar by using an enzyme called alternansucrase, produced by the Leuconostoc mesenteroides bacterium. Alternan is essentially reassembled fragments of glucose units, and shows excellent emulsification properties, according to Gregory Cote of the Biopolymer Research Unit at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill.