Food emulsions;  Gel;  Suspensions

Many foods are colloidal systems, containing particles of various kinds. The particles may remain as individual units suspended in the medium, but in most cases, aggregation of these particles takes place forming three-dimensional structures, generally referred to as “gels.” These aggregation structures are determined by the interaction forces between the particles that are determined by the relative magnitudes of attractive (van der Waals forces) and repulsive forces. The latter can be electrostatic or steric in nature depending on the composition of the food formulation. It is clear that the repulsive interactions will be determined by the nature of the surfactant present in the formulation. Such surfactants can be ionic or polar in nature, or they may be polymeric in nature. The latter are sometimes added not only to control the interaction between particles or droplets in the food formulation but also to control the...