Food emulsifier belongs to the surfactant, with hydrophilic and lipophilic amphiphilic characteristics, can reduce the surface tension of oil and water, reduce the surface energy of the system, so that incompatible two-phase system to form a uniform dispersion or emulsification, the characteristics of which depend on the emulsifier hydrophilic oil balance value (HLB).
There are about 65 kinds of food emulsifiers in the world, and the food emulsifiers that have been approved for use in China are Sipan, Twain, sodium stearoyl lactate / calcium, polyglycerides, sucrose esters, soybean phospholipids, etc., with a yield of more than 30,000 tons, and the world's food emulsifier consumption has exceeded 400,000 tons. Among them, the largest proportion is glycerol fatty acid ester emulsifier, accounting for about 2/3 to 3/4 of the total consumption, the new product polyglyceride fatty acid ester, belongs to one of the categories, has developed many types of put into use.
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Polyglyceride fatty acid ester (referred to as polyglyceride, PGE) is a new type of nonionic surfactant with excellent performance synthesized by polyglycerides and fatty acid esters or triglyceride ester exchange. By adjusting the degree of polymerization and esterification of polyglycerides, it can have good emulsification, dispersion, wetting, stabilization and inflatability and other multiple surface properties, widely used in margarine, shortening, ice cream, baked goods, plant protein drinks and chocolate candies, etc., compared with sucrose esters and other food additives, its emulsification performance and flavor are better.
Table 1 Dosage of polyglycerides in food
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > first, the application in dairy products</h1>
(a) Cream
Margarine is a W/O type emulsion that mainly uses lipophilic emulsifiers. Polyglycerides can not only make the aqueous solution and grease evenly dispersed, prevent the separation of water and oil, play an emulsification stabilizing role, but also as a crystal improver, adjust the tissue structure of margarine, improve product properties, taste and flavor, and extend the storage and preservation period.
The study found that in the production of margarine, the effect of 0.2% polyglycerides added and 0.4% monoglycerides was comparable, indicating that the emulsification performance of polyglycerides was better, and it could improve the spreadability, fluidity and plasticity of meal cream, eliminating water leakage in hot weather.
Whipped cream used in pastries and sweets is an O/W type emulsion, mainly using hydrophilic emulsifiers. The use of polyglycerides with high HLB values alone or compounding with soybean phosphorus esters, monoglycerides, etc., can improve the emulsification stability, foaming and retention of whipped cream. In addition, it is used as an emulsifier for acidic foam cream and still has excellent O/W emulsification under acidic conditions.
(2) Ice cream
Ice cream belongs to the O/W type emulsion, mainly using hydrophilic emulsifiers. At present, most of the polyglycerides used in ice cream are stearic acid series polyglycerides, used alone or in combination with sorbitan esters, etc., by improving the dispersibility of fat in the mixture, promoting the interaction between fat and protein, controlling the adhesion and agglomeration of fat during the freezing process, promoting uniform mixing of air, can significantly improve the expansion rate of the product, so that the product has the advantages of fine and smooth organization, volume increase, dry and loose texture, good conformability and storage resistance.
The results show that polyglycerides can achieve the same emulsification effect when the dosage is only 1/3 of monoglyceride, and in the case of halving, the appearance, taste, expansion rate, heat resistance and conformity are better than monoglycerides. In addition, Lin Jun's results show that the synergistic effect between polyglycerides is significantly better than that of single polyglycerides.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the application in beverages</h1>
In recent years, plant protein drinks with rich nutritional value have been welcomed by consumers. Due to the high protein and fat, the stability of such milk drinks is not long-lasting, with the prolongation of the storage period, fats and proteins are easy to condense into white solids floating on the liquid level, which seriously affects its appearance and acceptability, but the study found that polyglycerides have the effect of reducing the balance of protein surface concentration, moderate protein concentration can reduce protein aggregation, so as to achieve the purpose of improving stability.
In recent years, in the study of many protein beverage formulations, the use of polyglycerides and other emulsifiers can achieve a good emulsification effect, improve the stability and antioxidant properties of milk drinks. In addition, polyglycerides are applied to acidic beverages, which can prevent the occurrence of oil rings and crusts, such as wine drinks, artificial milk, coconut water, coffee white oil, etc. Hexaglycerol mono fatty esters can be used as emulsifiers and turbidity agents.
In powdered beverages, polyglycerides act as dispersants and wetting agents to improve the hydrophilicity and dispersion of powdered foods such as milk powder, cocoa powder and instant coffee to prevent agglomeration, clumping and oil leakage.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the application of roasted food</h1>
Polyglycerides can make the fat, water and sugar in the baked food production process disperse more evenly in the dough, thereby improving the quality of baked goods and significantly improving sensory indicators, such as in the process of making biscuits, adding a small amount of polyglycerides can make the fat and material completely emulsified and dispersed, improve the fat puff pastry effect and the crispness and taste of the biscuit.
In the processing application of bread, the volume of bread added with polyglycerides is expanded by 1/4, the internal network structure is fine and uniform, the taste elasticity is increased, and the softness is good; in the manufacture of cakes, the addition of polyglycerides can increase the volume of the slurry by 17%, the volume of the cake by 28%, and the cake pores are uniform, improving the taste and increasing the chewing taste.
In addition, polyglycerides can also be used as a foaming agent for pastries and other similar food surface decoration with frosting, compared with the usual egg white foaming, it is stable, not easy to lose water, loose and delicious, and also avoids the invasion of raw cakes such as microorganisms.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > iv, chocolate and confectionery applications</h1>
Adding a small amount of polyglycerides to the production of chocolate and chocolate products can not only reduce the viscosity of the system, reduce the amount of cocoa butter to reduce costs, but also make the crystals fine and uniform, and improve the glossiness, hardness and consistency of the product. For example, in milk chocolate with a 45% oil content, adding 0.3% polyglyceride tricasterolate reduces viscosity by 43% and is almost twice as effective as soy phospholipids. According to studies, the addition of 1% polyglycerides to cocoa butter can also play a role in preventing chocolate from frosting.
In the process of producing milk sugar and hard sugar with high fat content, the addition of a small amount of polyglycerides can prevent sugar products from sticking to the teeth, effectively inhibit the absorption of water in the sugar body environment, thereby improving the moisture resistance of sugar products and preventing the adhesion and deformation of products, and also inhibiting foaming and improving production efficiency; used as a chewing gum softener, it can improve its mixing performance, reduce the mixing temperature, shorten the mixing time, make the internal structure of the sugar uniform, the texture delicate, and improve the taste and flavor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >5. Applications in the sugar industry</h1>
In the process of sugar production processes such as washing sugar beets, purification and evaporation of sugar juice and transportation, the surfactants in the sugar juice are easily mixed with gases to produce a large number of bubbles, hindering the operational efficiency and effect of the sugar production process. Polyglycerides have been approved by the Ministry of Health as food processing aids for use in the sugar process to reduce the viscosity of the material and effectively eliminate (inhibit) foam.
Studies have proved that polyglycerides can still play a good defoaming (antifoaming) function even if they are added to the evaporation section at high temperatures (up to 130 ° C), such as the use of beet sugar in the production of sugar can shorten the cooking time by 17.2%, and the use of sugar cane sugar production can shorten the cooking time of sugar by 21.9%.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > other applications</h1>
Polyglycerides have certain antibacterial properties, can inhibit the growth of a variety of microorganisms, combined with cooking and other sterilization methods for canning and bagging food; when manufacturing processed foods of fish and livestock meat at low temperatures, polyglycerides can improve their sugar properties and make the taste delicate; used in peanut butter can effectively prevent oil phase separation; used in canned lunch meat can make the cut surface smooth and elastic; hydrophilic polyglycerides can improve the solidification quality of brine tofu; in acidic fruit jelly products, It can prevent the occurrence of product water segregation; it can also be used in seasonings, colorants, etc.
Source: Huang Yao, Deng Zeyuan, Hu Jiangning. Application of a novel emulsifier polyglyceride fatty acid ester in the food industry. Food Industry, Vol. 38, No. 12, 2017
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