Making margarine- 90 years of emulsifiers for water-in-oil emulsions

Palsgaard Technical Paper, May 2010

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Did you know that this year marks the 90th

anniversary of an invention which revolutionised the margarine industry?

This article discusses the backdrop to the invention of the first artificial emulsifier for foodstuffs and how it has come to affect the margarine industry.

By Cai Christensen, Business Unit ManagerLipid & Fine food.Palsgaard A/S.

How it all beganDuring the mid 19th century the price of butter along with that of other foodstuffs was sky-rocketing as a result of the growing industri-alisation. By 1867 this lead French emperor Napoleon III to promise a prize to whoever could provide a cheap and durable alternative to butter, which could be sold to the poor working class citizens as well as be used in the navy and the army. The prize was won by French chemist Hyppolyte Mège-Mouriés, who had invented a product which was primarily based on beef fat mixed with a little milk and water. The product was named marga-rine from the Greek word “marger-on” meaning pearl, which referred to the pearly appearance of beef fat at room temperature. Understandably, this margarine wasn’t much of a success. How-ever, other countries soon adopted the idea, including the Nether-lands, Germany, Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries.

In Denmark, the first margarine factory was established in 1883 by Otto Mønsted, who later ex-

panded to Great Britain and built the world’s largest margarine fac-tory, Southall. The key architect in the development of the margarine manufacture at Southall was a man named Einar V. Schou, who in 1907 revolutionised the marga-rine industry by inventing the dou-ble cooling drum – an invention which meant simpler manufactur-ing methods and a much better margarine.

Making margarine - old schoolOriginally, margarine was manu-factured from animal fat mixed with skimmed milk and making the margarine solid at room tem-perature. However, shortages in supply soon led to the addition of vegetable oils, and between 1900 and 1920 margarine was produced from a combination of animal fats and hardened and unhardened vegetable oils.

The inventor goes to workBy 1912 Einar V. Schou had left Southall and returned to Den-mark, where he had purchased the Palsgaard Estate. Being an entre-preneur Schou spent the next 8 years working on a solution to one

of the major problems of marga-rine manufacturing: How to merge oil and water. By heating linoleic- or linolenic- acid containing oils to 250 oC (high polymerising) Schou created a tough, elastic oil-containing sub-stance, which he diluted with oil. The emulsion resulting from this provided a very fine distribution of the minuscule water particles. Each particle of water was encap-sulated by an oil film, which meant that it would be isolated. Techni-cally, Schou referred to an outer phase made from oil and an inner phase made from water.

Palsgaard Technical Paper, May 2010Making margarine - 90 years of emulsifiers for water-in-oil emulsions

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Einar V. Schou, the inventor of the world’s first synthetic emulsifier.

In order to create margarines with more specific performances such as for bakery applications like cake-, filling cream- and puff pastry margarines, other types of emulsifiers were developed, such as those listed in table 2. These are typically used in combi-nations with the emulsifiers listed in table 1.

Palsgaard Emulsion Oil - a revo-lutionizing inventionSchou’s invention, which he named the Palsgaard Emulsion Oil, meant a number of benefits to margarine manufacture:• Facilitated and stabilizes

water-in-oil emulsion during emulsification and processing

• Ensured homogenous and stable emulsion in the finished product

• The shelf-life of the margarine was prolonged

• Improved frying performance – the margarine would not spat-ter. It would also prevent the products from sticking to the frying pan

• A more uniform and durable margarine with a better con-sistency and taste

• Facilitated production meth-ods

The use of emulsifiers in mod-ern day margarine manufactureSince Einar V. Schou patented the Palsgaard Emulsion Oil in 1920, several new types of emulsifiers for use in margarine have been developed. In the following, the modern day use of emulsifiers in margarine and spreads will be dis-cussed:

Margarine and margarine related products such as spreads are water-in-oil emulsions, which natu-rally defines the types of emulsifi-ers that can be used.

The emulsifiers listed in table 1 are mainly used alone or in combina-tions for creating the stable water-in-oil emulsion with small and uni-form water droplets by lowering the inter-facial tension between the water and the oil.

Palsgaard Technical Paper, May 2010Making margarine - 90 years of emulsifiers for water-in-oil emulsions

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Type E-number

Distilled monoglycerides of fatty acidsSuch as:• Palsgaard DMG® 0093 based on fully hydro-genated vegetable fats• Palsgaard® DMG 0291 based on partially hydrogenated rape seed oil• Palsgaard® DMG 0295 based on sunflower oil• Many other types

E-471

Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acidsSuch as:• Palsgaard® MDG 0064 based on fully hydrogenated vegetable fats• Palsgaard® MDG 0222 based on partially hydrogenated rape seed oil• Many other types

E-471

Lecithins E-322

Citric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acidsSuch as:• Palsgaard® CITREM 3203• Many other types

E-472c

Table 1: The most common types of emulsifiers for margarine and spreads

% emulsifiers

Interfacial tensiondyn/cm

Figure 1:Influence on the inter-facial tension by adding emulsifier.

Palsgaard Technical Paper, May 2010Making margarine - 90 years of emulsifiers for water-in-oil emulsions

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Type E-number

Polyglycerol esters of fatty acidsSuch as:• Palsgaard® PGE 1105• Palsgaard® PGE 1117

E-475

Compounds already optimized for the applications, e.g:• Palsgaard® 1308 for cakes and filling creams • Palsgaard® 1304/1302 for pastry margarine

E-471, E-475

Propylene glycol esters of fatty acidsSuch as:• Palsgaard® PGMS 2202

E-477

Lactic acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acidsSuch as:• Palsgaard® LACTEM 0410

E-472b

Table 2:List of emulsifiers used especially for bakery applications

For cakes, the emulsifiers secure the volume, the softness and crumb structure. For filling creams they secure the low density and the stability. For puff pastry margarine the plasticity of the margarine, the non-greasy surface of the marga-rine during preparation of the puff pastry dough and the lift and the lamination in the baked puff pastry are secured.

Low fat spreads / reduced fat spreadsFor several years these products have had a fat content between 35 and 65 %. Among other pa-rameters, the demand from the market has moved this fat content further down; making it possible to

buy spreads with a fat content less than 15 %. Despite the low fat con-tent is has been possible to main-tain the stable water-in-oil emul-sion. In order to reach this, new types of emulsifiers have been developed or included in the pro-duction of spreads, such as those listed in table 3.

For low fat spreads, the emulsion stability in the emulsion before the crystallizer is very important, and the unsaturated monoglycerides with an iodine value typically from 60 to 110 together with PGPR se-cures a stable viscous emulsion.

Type E-number

Unsaturated distilled monoglyceridesSuch as:• Palsgaard® DMG 0295 with iodine value approx. 110 • Palsgaard® DMG 0298 with iodine value approx. 80

E-471

Crystal promotersSuch as• Palsgaard® 6111 based on fully hydrogenated fats• Palsgaard® 6118 based on non-hydrogenated fats

Polyglycerol polyricinoleate ( PGPR )Such as:• Palsgaard® PGPR 4110• Palsgaard® PGPR 4175

E-476

Table 3: List of emulsifiers for spreads

The crystal promoter facilitates the production of the low fat spread and also work as an oil absorber in the soft type of spreads. PGPR is used in spreads with fat content less than 40 %.

New types of margarine and spreads During the past 25 years consum-ers have been calling out for prod-ucts that were low in fat, low in trans, low in salt, low in saturated fats, easy to handle and they will most likely continue to do so in fu-ture. These demands make it nec-essary for the margarine industry to develop new types of margarine products, which may also mean that the development of new types of functional ingredients such as emulsifiers is necessary.

In order to describe this develop-ment 2 cases will be used: Low fat spreads with 9 % fat content and low fat pastry margarine with 60 % fat content:

Case 1:Spreads with a 9 % fat contentDespite the very small continu-ous oil phase, the emulsifier sys-tem makes it possible to maintain the water-in-oil emulsion in the liquid emulsion before the crystal-lizer and in the final product. Be-cause of the small amount of fat

Case 1: A typical recipe for a 9 % fat spread:

Water phase: 1 % salt 89.9 % water 0.1 % potassium sorbate Flavour

Fat phase: 0.6 % Palsgaard® 0295 (destilled monoglyceride E471 with IV approx. 110) 0.4 % Palsgaard® 4175 (PGPR E476) 2 % interesterified fat; mp 38°C-42°C 6 % liquid oil Flavour, colour

Palsgaard Technical Paper, May 2010Making margarine - 90 years of emulsifiers for water-in-oil emulsions

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and oil available for creating the right emulsion, the water droplets must be of a certain size or the emulsion will break. Again the right emulsifier system is necessary for maintaining the right water-in-oil system.

Case 2:Bakery margarine/pastry marga-rinePastry margarine typically contains approx. 80 % fat. For many years, manufactures of pastry have want-ed to reduce this fat content be-cause of costs, but also because the amount of margarine, typically 35-40 %, necessary for obtaining the right consistency and lamina-tion in the baked pastry, gives a very high content of fat in the final product.

There are more hurdles to over-come when reducing the fat con-tent in bakery margarine; one is the stability of the margarine, an-other is the performance of the margarine in the baked goods and last but not least the performance of the margarine during the prepa-ration of the dough.

It has been possible to reduce the fat content in the pastry margarine from 80 % fat content to 60 % fat content by using the new type of emulsifier Palsgaard® 1311, which secures a stable, dry and very plastic pastry margarine. During baking this emulsifier combination secures a Danish pastry with an expansion and lamination similar to Danish pastry baked with pastry margarine with 80% fat content.The production process, temper-ing and handling of this new type of margarine is similar to the mar-garine containing 80 % fat.

Case 2: A typical recipe for 60 % pastry margarine:

Water phase: 1 % salt 0.1% Potassium-sorbate 38.9 % water

Fat phase: 2 % Palsgaard® 1311 (citric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids E-472c, poly- glycerol esters of fatty acids E-475) 58 % low trans fat blend, Flavour, colour

ConclusionAs it appears from this article, the development of emulsifiers for margarine continues and becomes more and more specialized in or-der to meet consumer demands for new types of margarine and spreads.

For Palsgaard, it all started with the ingenouity of Einar V. Schou and his invention of the Palsgaard Emulsion Oil 90 years ago. This ingenuity is still characterictic to Palsgaard and the company now has more than 70 emulsifiers made especially for margarine and spreads.

For further information please con-tact Business Unit Manager, Cai Christensen at +45 7682 7641 or e-mail ccc@palsgaard.dk.

Figure 2: Comparison of puff pastry with 60 % fat (to the left) and 80 % fat (to the right)

Figure 3: An example of the effect of an emulsi-fier in the mixture of oil and water.