4 Major Challenges in Food & Beverages Formulation

Chemical and physical destabilization of food and beverages is unavoidable, with numerous interrelated factors combining to alter the long-term thermodynamic behavior of food emulsions, suspensions, and foams. This can have dramatic implications for product shelf-life, texture, and mouthfeel, even flavor.

Therefore, enhancing the stability of colloidal systems used in food goods and beverages is a high priority for conserving product quality over time and ensuring the best customer perception.

The underlying challenge of food and beverage dispersion stability is the complex nature of colloidal instability mechanics. Multiple destabilization phenomena can impact colloidal stability depending on the interacting raw materials in the dispersion, their environmental or storage conditions, and their method of application or delivery.

In this article, we outline some of the key challenges in food and beverage stability in more depth.

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1. Ring Formation in Beverages

Ring formation is a common deterioration process affecting concentrated beverages. It is a form of creaming that occurs in the menisci of dispersions where surface tension causes the concentrated phase of this fluid to adhere to the inside of the container, forming a ring.

This phenomenon can take up to six months before becoming visible to the naked eye. But to maintain high-quality products and efficient manufacturing processes products must be tested in a much shorter time frame.

Weighing agents, such as brominated vegetable oil (BVO), are often diagnosed for limiting the effects of density differences between dispersive oil droplets and the aqueous phase to improve colloidal stability. However, BVO and other conventional weighing agents are considered unhealthy. Stability testing of beverages is increasingly concerned with the novel ingredients used to replace the likes of BVO.

2. Dairy Product Creaming and Flocculation

Creaming is a highly complex instability mechanic that is affected by various material properties and mechanical influences. It is a key phenomenon underlying the shelf-life of different milk products; the rate and severity of which will vary depending on fat content, homogeneity of fat globules in the aqueous phase, the presence of extra minerals like calcium (Ca), or additional additives like bacteria and proteins. Distinct products may also make dispersion stability testing more difficult. Fat- and sugar-free dairy products may exhibit vastly different instability kinetics or mechanics than typical products.

Creaming will subsequently occur at different rates in the same conditions for homogenized and non-homogenized milk products, with the faster formation of thicker creaming layers associated with both full-fat and semi-skimmed non-homogenized milk.

Dairy products are characterized by such complex instability phenomena. Yogurt is formed via milk protein gelation, a form of flocculation that is characterized by several distinct kinetic regions (coagulation, bacteria growth, and formation of a jellified network).

3. Reconstitution of Food Powder

The dairy industry has historically avoided the issue of colloidal instability by dehydrating milk products into a powder that can be rehydrated on request. This is ideal, as the powder is cost-efficient and space-saving, contributing to green initiatives. However, dehydration introduces a raft of additional challenges from a stability perspective. It is important to assess the properties of the reconstituted product to determine its similarity to the native form. Variations in the global stability of rehydrated milk powders could suggest a comparatively poor-quality product or sub-optimal rehydration processes.

Food powder stability is often characterized by its dissolution kinetics, which is determined by parameters such as wettability, sinkability, and dispersibility. Assessing the dry powder quality for reconstitution in liquids may require a thorough understanding of how well a powder layer penetrates water volume (wettability), how quickly it can overcome liquid surface tension to sink into the fluid (sinkability), and the rate at which a sediment layer dissolves in the fluid (dispersibility).

4. Emulsifying Properties of Vegetable Proteins

Market challenges also represent significant obstacles to food and beverage stability, as the availability and cost of essential ingredients can dramatically affect returns on investment (ROIs) from end products. The availability of emulsifying proteins is a particular challenge, as these essential raw materials are subject to substantial market volatility and availability fluctuations.

Researchers are attempting to overcome this issue by evaluating the potential emulsifying properties of plant proteins such as pea and soybean extracts. Eliminating the use of animal proteins is now a matter of commercial, ethical, and ecological importance. Plant proteins are currently a waste product with very low obvious value. Harnessing this waste for emulsification would have significant benefits to our planet, eliminating the reliance on animal products in keeping with the ecologically important trend towards veganism.

This requires a robust understanding of the global dispersion stability and stability kinetics of sample colloids, alongside the protein concentration and droplet size.

5. Food & Beverage Stability Testing with Turbiscan

The Turbiscan range specializes in formulation stability testing, with a suite of advanced instrumentation designed with the complexities of food and beverage markets in mind. The SMLS technology embedded in the Turbiscan range accelerates analysis up to 1,000 times faster than visual testing, with reliable detection and quantification of any destabilization mechanisms. There is no need for dilution as with alternative testing techniques, enabling accurate forecasting of the native product’s shelf-life.

The Turbiscan range has already assisted in the evaluation of plant protein’s efficiency as emulsifiers in food, the development of methods to estimate the reconstitution of food powder in a liquid, and much more.

If you have any questions about stability testing with our Turbiscan products, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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Ultimately, the choice of whether to use a simple sieving solution or to invest in Laser Diffraction or Dynamic Image Analysis will depend on the volume of testing, the budgets and staffing available and any specific international standards or customer requirements that you face.

Why not contact Microtrac for a free consultation to find out which solution will deliver the outcome and the Return on Investment you need?

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