Abstract
The membrane emulsification method, a new application technology of membrane properties, is described in relating with preparation characteristics of monodispersed food emulsions. For preparing o/w emulsions, the microporous membrane has to be hydrophilic to wet well with continuous (water) phase, and be hydrophobic for w/o emulsions. Commonly, dispersing phase (water or oil phase) is dispersed directly into continuous phase through a membrane with pressure. The emulsifying rate of this membrane emulsification system could not be high enough for preparing food emulsions, because the membrane had to be kept without wetting with the dispersing phase during emulsification processes. On the contrary, the emulsification rate was improved considerably by dispersing the preliminarily roughly emulsified emulsion as a dispersing liquid via membrane. The mean diameter and diameter distribution of emulsion particles depended on the mean pore size and pore size distribution of the membrane used, and the emulsifying conditions.
