Low Fat Emulsions

About

The Problem Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in much of the developed world, although lower energy versions of many foods have been produced and advice given on healthy eating consumers seem unwilling to compromise in any way. Food manufacturers have tried to address this problem by making lower fat versions of energy dense products by incorporating air filled droplets. However these products are difficult to manufacture and do not give the ideal organoleptic properties. Our New Solution? Air filled protein coated droplets which do not rely on hydrophobin droplet shells that can be substituted for fat in emulsions to enable production of low fat foods. Benefits of the New Technology Manufacturing process gives a more reliable, consistent final product, based on widely available protein source, 1-3uM bubble more closely matches the physical properties of oil droplets giving improved mouth feel, an economical alternative to hydrophobin based technologies. Background Food manufacturers face the problem of making low fat food alternatives of some of consumers favourite products such as desserts, cooking sauces and salad dressings not only taste as good but that also give the same texture and sensation in the mouth when eaten. Fat plays an important role in many products giving a distinctive texture as well as taste in the production of many products such as ice cream and mayonnaise. One of the current approaches to this problem is to use hydrophobins (a class of proteins found in fungi) to form air droplets of approximately the same size as fat droplets. The main problem with hydrophobins is that they are relatively expensive and it is difficult to form droplets in the 1-3uM range which match the size of fat droplets.