From October 2017 newsletter
Particle size (and shape) matters
Physical properties of food and drink products affect their taste, texture, appearance and stability, and depend on the properties of raw materials and ingredients. Projects on particle size, both of ground materials and of particles and droplets in liquids, provide good examples of our use of state-of-the-art methods to analyse particle size and shape in product development, reformulation and quality control.
- Cereals and milling - dynamic image analysis can measure grains and seeds and, in milling, can assess flour and semolina particle size relevant to mill and end use performance.
- Emulsions - analysis of droplet sizes to select the best performing stabiliser and the optimum dosage rate to avoid separation in an oil-based emulsion.
- Product stability - detailed sub-micron particle size analysis helped an enzyme supplier demonstrate a novel commercial development to control haze in beer.
Particle geometry is relevant to properties like bulk density and flow of powders, dispersion or dissolution of soluble ingredients such as sugar, extraction from products such as tea and coffee, and stability of colloids and emulsions.
Vince Clark
+44(0)1386 842223
vince.clark@campdenbri.co.uk