Effects of high pressure homogenisation of ice cream mix on the physical and structural properties of ice cream

This study investigated the effect of high pressure homogenisation (HPH) on the physical and structural properties of ice cream. Samples were produced from mixes differing in fat content (5% and 8%) and subjected to different homogenisation pressures (15/3 MPa and 97/3 MPa). Ice creams were compared for fat globule size distribution, overrun, melting behaviour, and hardness. No influence of HPH on fat structure destabilisation with respect to the conventional homogenisation (CH) was observed. The HPH ice cream samples with high fat content were characterised by the lowest overrun, the highest hardness and improved resistance to melting; the HPH ice creams with low fat content showed higher resistance to meltdown, but were not clearly differentiated for hardness with respect to the CH samples.