Sucrose ester emulsifierThe emergence of sucrose ester emulsifier has solved the problem of uniform mixing of two immiscible liquids, becoming an important additive in food processing. Common food emulsifiers currently used include: glycerol esters of fatty acids, sorbitan esters of fatty acids, sucrose fatty acid esters, sodium (calcium) stearoyl lactylate, polyglycerol fatty acid esters, and natural soybean phosphates.

Sucrose ester emulsifier is widely used in foods such as beverages, bread, meat products, and ice cream. In drinks like soy milk and peanut milk, the role of emulsifiers is very important. Without emulsifiers, soy milk and peanut milk would lose their shiny appearance. As oilseed crops, soybeans and peanuts are rich in fat, but these fats are not soluble in water. Without emulsifiers, a layer of milky oil would float on the surface of soy milk and peanut milk.

In bread, sucrose ester emulsifier can make the bread soft and maintain its softness for a long time. It can reduce moisture loss in the protein structure, delaying the formation of hard proteins. Moreover, after baking and cooling, as the temperature decreases and time extends, it prevents the amylose in wheat dough from retrograding into an insoluble state, thus hardening and becoming brittle, significantly reducing the softness of the bread. Saturated monoglycerides are a very representative and effective dough emulsifier. When monoglycerides and other emulsifiers are added to the dough and mixed, they are absorbed by the starch molecules. When the dough temperature reaches around 55 degrees, the emulsifier reacts with amylose to form a helical complex. This reaction increases the gelatinization temperature of the starch granules, reduces the total amount of gelatinized starch in the core at low temperatures, thereby lowering the crystallinity of the starch molecules, preventing amylopectin from clumping inside the starch granules, and thus preventing starch aging. Once starch ages, the bread will crumble.

In ice cream, sucrose ester emulsifier helps in the aggregation and coagulation of fat globules, which is crucial for the dryness, fine texture, and shrinkage resistance of ice cream during the extrusion process. The role of sucrose ester emulsifier in ice cream is mainly reflected in emulsification, foaming, and improving shape retention. Emulsification keeps the homogenized fat globules in a finely emulsified state and stabilizes them; the foaming effect can enhance the foaming performance and expansion rate of the mixture; the improvement in shape retention is due to the accumulation of emulsifiers in the bubbles of the ice cream, which can stabilize and prevent heat transfer, increasing the heat resistance of the ice cream at room temperature, allowing it to better maintain its inherent shape when stable.