Impact of weighting agents and sucrose on gravitational separation of beverage emulsions.

The influence of weighting agents and sucrose on gravitational separation in 1 wt % oil-in-water emulsions was studied by measuring changes in the intensity of backscattered light from the emulsions with height. Emulsions with different droplet densities were prepared by mixing weighting agents [brominated vegetable oil (BVO), ester gum (EG), damar gum (DG), or sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB)] with soybean oil prior to homogenization. Sedimentation or creaming occurred when the droplet density was greater than or lower than the aqueous phase density, respectively. The weighting agent concentrations required to match the oil and aqueous phase densities were 25 wt % BVO, 55 wt % EG, 55 wt % DG, and 45 wt % SAIB. The efficiency of droplet reduction during homogenization also depended on weighting agent type (BVO > SAIB > DG, EG) due to differences in oil phase viscosity. The influence of sucrose (0-13 wt %) on the creaming stability of 1 wt % soybean oil-in-water emulsions was also examined. Sucrose increased the aqueous phase viscosity (retarding creaming) and increased the density contrast between droplets and aqueous phase (accelerating creaming). These two effects largely canceled one another so that the creaming stability was relatively insensitive to sucrose concentration.