Preparation of emulsions and particles by membrane emulsification for the food processing industry

Emulsions play an important role in the formulation of foods for production of o/w emulsions, e.g., dressings, artificial milks, cream liqueurs, as well as for preparation of some w/o emulsions, e.g. margarines and low fat spreads. Over the last 20 years, there has been a growing interest in a technique for making emulsions known as “membrane emulsification”. This method involves using a low pressure to force the dispersed phase to permeate through a membrane into the continuous phase. The distinguishing feature is that the resulting droplet size is controlled primarily by the choice of the membrane and not by the generation of turbulent droplet break-up. This article provides a review on the membrane emulsification process for the food processing industry: the main characteristics of the membrane emulsification process are summarized; and simple emulsions, multiple emulsions, and encapsulated materials prepared using membrane emulsification are described.