emulsifiers in food technology
TRANSCRIPT
Book review
Emulsifiers in Food Technology
By Robert J. Whitehurst
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2004.
Pp. 264. ISBN 1-4051-1802-4. £99.50.
The book is available in hardback from the
Blackwell Publishing online bookstore at http://
www.blackwellpublishing.com.
The target groups of this book are food scientists/
chemists, food technologists, ingredients suppliers,
and quality assurance personnel. This book will be
useful for both those who are unfamiliar with
emulsifier chemistry and applications and just
want a general overview as well as those looking
for more detailed knowledge and up-to-date
information on food emulsifiers.
The book contains 264 pages in ten chapters
and four appendices. The ten chapters are written
by individual authors, all experts within their field.
Emulsifiers are food ingredients, which are used
extensively within the food industry as they
contribute beneficial functionalities to huge
amounts of industrially prepared foods today.
Among the benefits offered by emulsifiers are
dough strengthening, crumb softening, and retar-
dation of staling in bread, i.e. increased shelf-life.
In chocolate they are used for rheology modifica-
tion during processing and crystal modification.
Emulsifiers are also used in the meat industry for
water and fat emulsions in e.g. sausages and
protein stabilization, while they are used for
viscosity modification in ice cream and dairy
products etc. Each chapter deals with a main class
of food emulsifiers, and examples of typical
applications and functionalities are given for each
of them together with information on their pro-
duction/synthesis, chemistry and physical proper-
ties, solubilities, appearance, historical
information, and legal status etc.
Among the group of emulsifiers dealt with are
lecithins, mono- and diglycerides, acid esters of
mono- and diglycerides (ACETEM, LACTEM,
CITREM), di-acetyl tartaric esters of monoglyc-
erides (DATEM), polyglycerol esters (PGE),
sucrose esters, sorbitan esters and polysorbates,
propylene glycol fatty acid esters, stearoyl-2-
lactylates and oleoyl lactylates, as well as ammo-
nium phosphatides. There is one conspicuous
omission, however: the widely used emulsifier
polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) is not
mentioned at all.
The appendices contain information on Hydro-
phile Lipophyle Balance (HLB) definition,
E-numbers, names and synonyms of food emulsi-
fiers as well as a summary of food emulsifier
applications and recommended analytical methods
for food emulsifiers. There are many useful and
illustrative figures and photos in the book, unfor-
tunately all in black and white. Colours could have
been used throughout the book with advantage,
and in all other modern scientific literature as well
for that matter, in order to make the information
more appealing.
Many of the chapters have new references, some
of them as recent as 2003. A much used reference
in several of the chapters is the EFEMA (Euro-
pean Food Emulsifier Manufacturers Association)
Index of food emulsifiers, a work which contains
extensive information on legal status and also
gives examples of applications and recommended
analytical methods as well as emulsifier specifica-
tions and toxicological data. A new, updated
version of this index, more recent than the
reference in this book, has been issued in 2004
and can be downloaded for free at http://
www.emulsifiers.org/index.php as a small PDF
file. A printed version of the updated index (150
pp.) would be a fine companion for this book on
emulsifiers, which is highly recommendable to
anyone interested in food chemistry and food
technology and wanting to learn more about what
emulsifiers are, how they are made/used and, last
but not least, what functionalities and benefits
they offer in various modern, industrially made
foods.
A. T. Bech
Danisco A/S,
Brabrand,
Denmark
International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2005, 40, 117 117
doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.00900.x
� 2005 Institute of Food Science and Technology Trust Fund