CA1206794A - Process and an apparatus for producing edible emulsions - Google Patents

Process and an apparatus for producing edible emulsions

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Publication number
CA1206794A
CA1206794A CA000431919A CA431919A CA1206794A CA 1206794 A CA1206794 A CA 1206794A CA 000431919 A CA000431919 A CA 000431919A CA 431919 A CA431919 A CA 431919A CA 1206794 A CA1206794 A CA 1206794A
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CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
emulsion
oil
process according
components
fat
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA000431919A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
David P.J. Moran
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Unilever PLC
Original Assignee
Unilever PLC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Unilever PLC filed Critical Unilever PLC
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1206794A publication Critical patent/CA1206794A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

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  • Edible Oils And Fats (AREA)
  • Fats And Perfumes (AREA)

Abstract

Abstract of the disclosure 1. A process for producing an edible oil- and water-containing emulsion, which comprises:
(i) processing individual streams of components of the emulsion;
(ii) separately recirculating at least part of each of the components of the emulsion;
(iii) mixing the processed components of the emulsion to obtain the final emulsion.

Description

~ g~ 07 (R) A PROCESS AND AN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING EDIBLE
EMNLSIO~S

The pre~ent invention relatee to an apparatus and a process for producing edible emul~ion3, particularly oil- and water-containing emul ions such as spread3 of the margarine-type or o~ the low-calorie-type~

Such products are conventionally produced from an aqueous pha~e and a fat pha~e which are combined to form a pre-emulsion which i~ ~ubjected to cooling and te~turising treatments in order to obtain a plastic 10 product ~uch as a s~ick mar~arine or a ~ub margarin~.
The pla~tic fat product i~ automatically packed by a packaging machine. Quite often ~he packaging machine-breaks down or ha~ ~o be stopped for one reason or another. In that cas~ the product is normally remelt-ed and recircula~ed or it ha~ to be dumped. These pro-cedures clearly have disadvantages, since as a result of this sOmetL~eS large quantitiee of the product can be lost or, in the ca~e where emulsions of the duplex type, i.e. emulsions of the o/w/o-type are produced, starting from a cream containing fat proteins and thickeners, the character of ~he emulsion i~ strongly af~ected owing to changes occurr~ng in the sen~itive structures (e.g. particle ~ize of the dispersed phase) and pha~e inversion may occur, resulting in emulsions of a different type than originally int~nded (o/w in-stead of w/o emulsion~). Loss of oil from the dispersed cream may al~o occur. Also a problem may arise due to the variou~ amounts o recircula~ed product (10-100~) encountered in standard margarine processing.

Applicants have found a process and an apparatus which alleviate the above-mentioned problems to a great ex-tent.

. .
- 2 ~ L ~,()7 (E'l According to the invention there is provided a process for producing an edible oil- and water-containiny emulsion, which comprises (i) processing by heat-exchanye, cooling, cr~stallizing, homogenizing or pasteurizing individual phases of the emulsion, (ii) separately recirculating back into its respective container at least part of each of the individual phases of the emulsion;
(iii) mixing the processed phases of the emulsion to obtain the final emulsion.

The individual streams of components of the emulsion may comprise an aqueous phase or a fat phase or an oil- and water-containing emulsion, preferably an oi1-in-water emulsion (cream).

Preferably, at least one of the individual streams of components consisting of e.g. an aqueous phase is processed through one or more heat exchangers,wherein pasteurisation takes place or cooling is effected to achieve a temperature somewhat higher, equal to or lower than the temperature at which the fat used for producing the emulsion starts crystallizing. Cooling is preferably carried out to achieve a temperature within the range of -10 to 15C.

One or more aqueous phases may contain a viscosity increasing agent, such as a gelling agent, a thickening agent or a protein, whereas another aqueous phase may be non-gellable.

Preferably, at least one of the individual streams of components consisting of a fat phase is processed through a heat exchanger and/or a fat conditioning system in which fat crystal nucleation and fat crystal growth occur. One of the individual streams of components may consist of a water- and oil-containing emulsion which is processed through a heat exchanger (in which inversion may take place).

a,,q~3 ~ ~q~ L S307 (R) Accordirlg to a pre0rred embodiment of ~he pre~ent in-vention (i) an individual component tream consisting of an oil-in~water 0mulsion and an individual component stream consisting of a fat phase are separately p~ocessed;
(ii) at least part of the oil-in-water emulsion and at least part of the fat phase are recirculated;
(iii) said processed oil-in-water emulsion and fat phase are mixed to obtain an oil-in-water-in-oil emul3ion.

For instance, in case of breakdown of the packaging ma-chine, the individual stream~ of emulsion components consisting of the atty phase(s) and the aqueous phase(s) of the emulsion are separately recirculated, preerably via heat-exchangers, to their respective containers, from which they can be reintroduced into the system, preferably via a common proportioning pumpO
The individl~al recirculating streams are usually con-stantly in operation at a low rate of recirculation to keep the mechani$m at the readyO

The present invention also relates to an apparatus which is useful for producing edible multiple-phase emulsions, particularly oil- and water-containing emulsions of the margarine or low-fat-spread type.

The apparatus in it~ ~implest form comprises:
means (A) for processing individual streams of compo-nents of the emulsion;
means ~B) for separately recirculating each of the com-ponent~ of t~e emul~ion;
means (C) for mixing the proce~sed individual streams of components of the emulsion.

~ ,7~ ~ L ~07 ~R) Means (A) may con~ist of one or more heat-e~changers and/or one or more fat cond.itioning sy~tems in which fat cry~tal nucleation and growth occur. Means (A) prefer-ably con~ist~ of one or more scraped-surface heat-^j 5 exchanger~ and/o~ one or more crystallizer units, e.g.Votator A~ and C-unit~ as described in "Margarine" by Ander3en and Williams, Pergamon Pres~, 1965.

Means (B) may comprise valves directing the individual ~tream~ through either a recirculation loop (which may compri~e a he~t-e~changer) to eparate containers or to means (C), which may comprise a static mixer, a scraped-surface heat-~xchanger, a crystallizer unit, a homogen-izing valve, optionally driven by a high-pre~sure hy-draulic pump, or combinations thereof. Means 5B) prefer-ably consist in ganged valves.

Mean~ (C) are preferably connected to a sensory unit, for instance an electric conductivity meter, enabling checking of the quality of the emulsion produced, and ~o a valve dir~cting ~aid emul~ion to either the packaging machine or to dump.

The mi~ing unit ~C) i8 most conveniently a low-capacity mixer (0.5 to 20 litres), ~o that in the ca~e of mate-rial having to be dumped the los of material i~ mini-mized.

The advantages of the proces~ and apparatus according to the invention can be ~ummarized as follows: .
(1) By having provision to recirculate the oil phase(s) and the aqueous phase( 8) a~ individual separate stream(s), followed by a volume~rically relatively small mixing de-vice, 108~ of material due to overworking in a standard Votator on hold-up i~ eliminated or at lea~t greatly re-stricted.
~ tra~ k / ( p~ ) (~) Possible problem~ cau~ed by varying amounts o re-circulatecl (reworked) product (L0-100~), encountered in standard processing, are eliminated since in the present inven~ion, instead of the product itself, individual streams of product-components are recirculated.
(3) Products with delicate structures (e.g. thi~otropic aqueous phases) can be handled.
(4) Products produced from mul~iple, differently formu-lated aqueous phases which should not be intermixed can be processed.

The invention will now be illustrated in the following examples and drawing.

E~ample 1 In this e~ample an apparatus according to the invention is illustrated. The numeral3 refer to the figures appear-ing in the appended drawing.

The apparatus comprises in its simple form:
~A) a container (1), from which e.g. an aqueous phase (w) can be dispensed, a valve (2) directing the flow of aqueous pha~e to a 5 1 mixing unit (7) or through a re-circulation loop (4) leading to the con~ainer (1);
(B) a container (2), from which e.g. a fat phase can be dispensed, a valve (6) directing the flow of fat phase to a mixing unit (7) or to a recirculation loop (8) leading to fat phase container (53.
In a more sophisticated apparatus, which is appropriate for producing spreads, container (1) and container (5) are preferably connected to a common proportioning pump (10).
The aqueou~ phase is processed through heat-exchanger(s) (9), whereas the at phase i 8 processed through a series ~Z~)~ 7~3~ L B-J7 (1~) of Votator A- and C-units (12), wherein the fat i8 pre-crystallized.

Valves (2) and (6) ar~ ganged valves. Recirculating loops (4) and (8) comprise heat-exchangers (3) and (13) re-spectively.

Mixing device (7) i5 connected to an electric conducti-vity meter (11). Through valve (14) the emulsion is directed to either a packaging machine or to dump.

Example 2 In this example the production of an o/w/o-emulsion using the proce3s according to the inventisn i8 illus-trated.

Using the apparatus illustrated in E~ample 1, an o/w/o-emulsion was produced fxom a cream (i) containing:
11.0% of fat, 0.08~ of K-sorbate, 20 43% of whey pro-tein, 1,0~ of carboxymethylcellulose and 56.49~ of water, pH 502.: and a fat phase (ii), containing 28.37% of fat, 0.6% of monoglyceride and 0.03% of colouring agent.

The fat phase (ii) was cooled to 0C and the cream phase (i) to 5C before final mixing in a Votator C-unit ro-tating at 1000 rpm.

Individual stream~ of 'che components of the emulsion were constantly recirculated at a low rate.
The emulsion obtained was of the o/w/o-type, having cream drops of an average diameter of about 8 microns, disper3ed in a continuous fat phase. Very little or no 1038 of oil from the dispersed p~ase had occurred.
The electric conductivity was about 0.2 micro S cm~l.

Claims (21)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPER' OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A process for producing an edible oil- and water-containing emulsion, which comprises (i) processing by heat-exchange, cooling, crystallizing, homogenizing or pasteurizing individual phases of the emulsion;
(ii) separately recirculating back into its respective container at least part of each of the individual phases of the emulsion;
(iii) mixing the processed phases of the emulsion to obtain the final emulsion.
2. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components of the emulsion consists of an aqueous phase.
3. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components of the emulsion consists of a fat phase.
4. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components of the emulsion consists of an oil- and water-containing emulsion.
5. A process according to claim 4, wherein the oil- and water-containing emulsion is an oil-in-water emulsion.
6. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components consisting of an aqueous phase is processed through one or more heat-exchangers.
7. A process according to claim 6, wherein the aqueous phase is pasteurized.
8. A process according to claim 6, wherein the aque-ous phase is processed through a heat-exchanger, in which it is cooled to a temperature somewhat higher than, equal to or lower than the temperature at which the fat used for producing the emulsion starts crystallizing.
9. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components consisting of a fat phase is processed through a heat-exchanger and/or a fat conditioning system in which fat crystal nucleation and growth occur.
10. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components of the emulsion consisting of an oil-in-water emulsion is pro-cessed through a heat exchanger.
11. A process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the individual streams of components of the emulsion consists of an aqueous phase containing an additive which increases its viscosity.
12. A process according to claim 11, wherein the additive is selected from a protein, a gelling agent and a thickening agent.
13. A process according to claim 1, wherein (i) an individual component stream consisting of an oil-in-water emulsion and an individual component stream consisting of a fat phase are separately processed;
(ii) at least part of the oil-in-water emulsion and at least part of the fat phase are recirculated;
(iii) said processed oil-in-water emulsion and fat phase are mixed to obtain an oil-in-water-in-oil emulsion.
14. Apparatus for producing an edible oil- and water-containing emulsion, comprising:
(A) one or more scraped-surface heat-exchangers and/or one or more fat conditioning systems each comprising a crystallizer unit in which fat crystal nueleation and growth occur, for processing individual streams of components of the emulsion;
(B) means for separately recirculating each of the components of the emulsion, comprising valves directing the individual streams through either a recirculation loop to separate containers or to means (C); and (C) means for mixing the processed individual streams of components of the emulsion, comprising a static mixer, a scraped-surface heat-exchanger, a crystallizer unit, a homogenizing valve optionally driven by a high-pressure hydraulic pump, or combinations thereof.
15. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the containers are connected to a common proportioning pump.
16. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein means (B) consist of ganged valves.
17. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein means (C) are connected to a sensory unit enabling checking of the quality of the emulsion produced.
18. Apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the sensory unit consists of an electric conductivity meter.
19. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein means (C) consist of a low-capacity mixer having a volume ranging from 0.5 to 20 liters.
20. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein means (C) are connected to a valve directing the product to either the packaging machine or to dump.
21. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein means (B) comprise a heat-exchanger.
CA000431919A 1982-07-08 1983-07-06 Process and an apparatus for producing edible emulsions Expired CA1206794A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB8219844 1982-07-08
GB8219844 1982-07-08

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1206794A true CA1206794A (en) 1986-07-02

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ID=10531553

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA000431919A Expired CA1206794A (en) 1982-07-08 1983-07-06 Process and an apparatus for producing edible emulsions

Country Status (6)

Country Link
JP (1) JPS5963136A (en)
AU (1) AU559656B2 (en)
CA (1) CA1206794A (en)
ES (2) ES523952A0 (en)
FI (1) FI76677C (en)
ZA (1) ZA834971B (en)

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB8630555D0 (en) * 1986-12-22 1987-02-04 Unilever Plc Producing butter-like w/o emulsion spread
JP7084850B2 (en) * 2018-11-13 2022-06-15 雪印メグミルク株式会社 Method for producing low-fat plastic oil medium-water emulsified oil / fat composition

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ES530705A0 (en) 1985-09-01
ES8501207A1 (en) 1984-11-16
FI832414A0 (en) 1983-07-01
FI76677C (en) 1988-12-12
AU559656B2 (en) 1987-03-19
AU1657583A (en) 1984-01-12
FI76677B (en) 1988-08-31
ZA834971B (en) 1985-02-27
ES8507326A1 (en) 1985-09-01
JPS5963136A (en) 1984-04-10
ES523952A0 (en) 1984-11-16
FI832414L (en) 1984-01-09

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