ABSTRACT
The majority of this book has focused on a discussion of the basic physicochemical principles of emulsion science. In this chapter, the importance of understanding these principles for improving food emulsion properties is demonstrated through a discussion of a selected number of actual food products that exist as emulsions: dairy emulsions, beverage emulsions, and dressings. These products were chosen because their bulk physicochemical characteristics are governed primarily by the presence of the emulsion droplets so that their properties can largely be understood in terms of the principles explained in previous chapters. There are many other classes of food emulsions that are commercially important, including certain sauces, dips, desserts, nutritional beverages, margarines, and spreads. Each of these products can be characterized by the type of ingredients they contain, the processing methods used to fabricate them, the environmental conditions used to store them, and their desirable physicochemical, sensory, and nutritional characteristics. Consequently, there are unique challenges associated with the design and fabrication of each of these classes of emulsion-based product. Due to space constraints, it is not possible to review each of these different product categories. Instead, the interested reader should refer to relevant research and review articles if more information is needed.
