Fat crystallisation at oil–water interfaces

Nanostructured Lipid Carriers: Effect of Solid Phase Fraction and Distribution on the Release of Encapsulated Materials

“…Specifically, while the nucleation of solid domains cannot be induced directly, it may be guided through the properties of the surfactants stabilizing the emulsion drops that form the basis for NLCs, 4,24 as found in several studies where surfactants were found to act as "templates" for the solid domain crystals. Furthermore, the effects of the interfacial layer on nucleation could be enhanced or reduced through the cooling rate and temperature.…”

Current update on the influence of minor lipid components, shear and presence of interfaces on fat crystallization

“…Since, the effectiveness of Pickering stabilization is dictated by the size and shape of crystals present at the interface, emulsifiers showing an effect on the polymorphic transition and arrangement of fat crystals, does influence the overall stability of the emulsions. Needle shaped crystals are more likely to cause rapid destabilization compared to smaller platelets that show better surface coverage [38 ]. For example, based on macro and micro beam XRD studies, Wassell et al found that a combination of emulsifiers resulted in better stabilization of w/o emulsion by promoting the formation of small crystals with lamellar planes almost parallel to the interface [44].…”

“…The templating effect of emulsifiers in the emulsion is best seen when the hydrophobic tail of the emulsifier and the TAG molecule exhibits some level of structural similarity (i.e. chain length and saturation level) [38 ]. Since, the effectiveness of Pickering stabilization is dictated by the size and shape of crystals present at the interface, emulsifiers showing an effect on the polymorphic transition and arrangement of fat crystals, does influence the overall stability of the emulsions.…”

Specialty oils and fats in margarines and low-fat spreads

“…As can be seen from Figure 10.1, the stabilization of margarine is mainly achieved by the presence of fat crystals, which is the so-called Pickering stabilization (Pickering, 1907). The formation of the fat crystals at the interface may be originated by means of a surfactant (i.e., saturated/ unsaturated mono-and diacylglycerols), which may act as a template that promotes the interfacial heterogeneous nucleation (by reducing the activation energy of nucleation) of the TAGs present in the lipid phase (Wassell et al, 2012;Douaire et al, 2014). On the one hand, the surface active fat crystals will be absorbed at the oil-water interface and form a shell of sintered fat crystals around the water droplets, thus providing a physical interfacial barrier against coalescence (Frasch-Melnik et al, 2010a,b).…”

“…Adapted from Flöter and Bot (2006) and Upritchard et al (2005). Ghosh and Rousseau, 2012;Douaire et al, 2014). On the other hand, the fat crystals that are formed within the bulk of the lipid continuous phase will start to aggregate and to form clusters, which will further interact between each other and result in the formation of a three-dimensional fat crystal network (Narine and Marangoni, 1999;Martini et al, 2006).…”