EDGE emulsification for food-grade dispersions

In this paper, we use the Edge-based Droplet GEneration (EDGE) emulsification method to produce food-grade emulsions (including double emulsions) and foams. This newly developed mild technology proved to be very stable and robust in the production of all these products. The products are made with food-grade components in an up-scaled micro device, which does not show any changes in time in wettability and fouling. The size of the droplets and bubbles is as needed for food stuffs. Air bubbles generated with EDGE were much larger than emulsion droplets, which could be explained through the viscosity ratio of the phases and changes in interfacial free energy caused by dynamic interfacial tension effects. In the outlook section of this paper, the obtained results are related to the dimensions of the devices, which are in a practically feasible range, also due to the simplicity of the EDGE structure and its operation. Preliminary estimations show that a 300L system can produce 1 m/h 4% (v/v) emulsion. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.