Interfacial and foaming properties of some food grade low molecular weight surfactants

During aeration of food matrices it is important to control the formation and stabilization of air bubbles. An optimal control of air bubble creation allows to modulate the stability and microstructural properties (bubble size) of foamed food products. In this work, we investigated the relationship between the surface properties of different commercially available surfactants with their foaming characteristics. It was found that lamellar phase forming surfactants such as the sodium stearoyl lactylate (SSL) or the mono-, di-glyceride (Cremodan) induced a better foam stability and a lower gas permeability coefficient through a gas/liquid interface than a whey protein isolate (WPI) or micelle forming surfactant Tween 80. This was coupled with the formation of foams having a finer microstructure (bubble size). The obtained foam stability data could be correlated with equilibrium surface tension data.