University of Illinois Chicago
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Drainage of Animal and Plant-Based Milk Foams

thesis
posted on 2024-08-01, 00:00 authored by Lena Hassan
Milk is a multicomponent complex fluid comprised of proteins, fat droplets, sugars, minerals, vitamins, and essential amino acids. Bovine milk is an oil-in-water emulsion that also contains proteins in the form of unimers, micelles and aggregates. Milk can be transformed via chemical and/or mechanical processing into other food formulations such as yogurts, cheeses, and ice cream. Furthermore, milk can be used as a source for extracting its major proteins (caseins and whey) and for producing protein derivatives such as sodium caseinate. Milk foams created by either aeration (steam wand) or physical agitation (frothing) methods are essential for producing lattes, cappuccinos, and milkshakes. The primary motivation of this dissertation is to develop characterization protocols and an understanding of foamability, foam stability, and foam drainage of animal and plant-based milk emulsions. The foaming behavior of each milk depends on its rheological and interfacial properties, which are in turn influenced by ingredients, including proteins and other additives like polysaccharides. Understanding and characterizing the foaming and flow behavior of animal milk are necessary steps toward creating plant-based alternatives that match or outperform animal products in terms of nutrition and properties or functionalities expected by consumers. The remarkable differences in physical structure, interactions within bulk and interface, adsorption kinetics, and interfacial properties of animal and plant proteins are likely the primary contributors to their influence on shear and extensional flow behavior, drop or bubble formation, thin film drainage, and overall foaming properties that remain incompletely understood. In this contribution, we focus on the characterization of rheology and foaming properties of the multicomponent milk formulations and describe the contrast between properties and functionality of animal and plant-based milks in terms of the influence of ingredients, especially proteins. We anticipate that characterization studies and methods described here, especially the bespoke experimental protocols such as IDIOM, fizzics-scope, and DoS will contribute to the improved understanding and development of plant-based alternatives.

History

Advisor

Vivek Sharma

Department

Chemical Engineering

Degree Grantor

University of Illinois Chicago

Degree Level

  • Doctoral

Degree name

Doctor of Philosophy

Committee Member

S h a f i g h M e h r a e e n ; V i k a s B e r r y ; M a r k S c h l o s s m a n ; a n d S t e f a n K . B a i e r

Thesis type

application/pdf

Language

  • en

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