Susan M. Vidal

Food Emulsions in Extruded Glassy Materials

SUMMARY This paper provides a method for fixing volatile oils/flavor ingredients in the form of droplets in homogeneous high density glassy substrates produced via a continuous melt extrusion process. The substrates required for this process consist of a dry blend of a major component (high molecular weight) and a minor component (low molecular weight) food grade ingredients that were fed to an automated extruder at a preset temperature and screw profile. A highly viscous but homogeneous melt is produced in about 1 minute that entraps the flavor ingredient in the form of fine droplets. On emerging from the die the melted mass is transferred into a glassy substrate of very desirable encapsulating properties. The physical chemical factors responsible for the stability of these glassy systems will be discussed in this article.