The influence of aging time at 4C has been studied for three ice cream mix emulsions containing 10% weight fraction of milk fat samples differing by their composition. Milk fat composition was varied by partially replacing anhydrous milk fat (AMF) either by a high melting temperature, stearin (AMF/S), or a low melting temperature, oleain (AMF/O) fraction. Among the three ice cream mix emulsions, the AMF/O emulsion containing the lowest proportion of saturated triglycerides had slightly lower proportion of high‐size fat droplets regardless of the storage time periods, but it presented a higher shear sensitive behavior with aging time. In addition, the structural recovery following a shearing test (100/s for 1 min) observed in fresh emulsions was in the following order: AMF/S > AMF > AMF/O. However, structural recovery decreased faster with aging time for AMF/S than AMF, while it remained unchanged for AMF/O emulsion, where development of crystalline fat was most delayed. Based on these results, it is suggested that different shear stability and structure recovery after shearing can be related to the rate of development of fat crystals in the milk fat droplets which affects the interaction properties between the weak network of biopolymers in the aqueous phase and the fat droplets in the emulsions, depending on milk fat composition.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Our studies indicated an important role of unsaturated milk fat on the functional properties of ice cream mix emulsions, through modifying their rheological behavior as a result of changes in the crystallization properties of the fat in the emulsion droplets. We showed that higher amount of crystallized fat may prevent structure enhancement in the emulsions, and the resultant structure is more sensitive against shearing. This phenomenon will have effects on the aging time of the emulsions at 4C before whipping and, finally, on their overrun and the microstructure of incorporated air bubbles, which have been discussed elsewhere (Bazmi et al. 2007).