Organogelation: It’s Food Application

Gels with the ability to immobilize a liquid phase are structures of three-dimensional network. These types of gels consist of two parts, gelling agent (network forming) and liquid solvent phase (hydrophilic or hydrophobic). However, depending on the polarity of the liquid immobilized within the networked structure, gels may be termed either as hydro gels (polar solvent-water) or organogels (organic solvent) [1]. An organ gel can be defined as an organic liquid entrapped within a thermo-reversible, anhydrous and structured viscous-elastic material by a three-dimensional gel network, also referred to as oleo gels if the organic phase is edible oil. This simply means transformation of a liquid oil into a ‘gellike’ structure with viscous-elastic properties This gel network is formed by the self-assembly of a relatively low concentration of low molecular weight compounds organogelator molecules; which are capable of gelling organic solvents [2,3].