Bruker minispec Droplet Size Analyzer

The droplet size in emulsions plays a major role in developing and producing foods such as mayonnaise and margarine because of its influence on key product characteristics, including stability and rheology. This Application Note describes how the Bruker minispec Droplet Size Analyzer 2.0 uses time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) to help food scientists understand the size distributions to improve quality control processes and support new product development.

Introduction

Emulsions are dispersions of droplets of one liquid phase (the disperse phase) and in another liquid phase (the continuous phase), which are not miscible or soluble, usually produced with an emulsifier to hold the droplet distribution and prevent separation of both phases into separate layers. They can be found in a variety of foods, including oil-in-water emulsions such as mayonnaise and milk and water-in-oil emulsions such as margarine and butter.

A fundamental characteristic of any emulsion is the droplet size because this affects many of its properties. Droplet size plays a crucial role in emulsion stability, which in turn impacts product shelf-life. Stability is improved by smaller droplet sizes, which results in a reduced tendency for the droplets to coalesce or to separate gravitationally, giving the product a longer shelf-life.