Sucrose esters, an emulsifier with surprising functionality

About Sisterna.

Sisterna is the world’s forerunner in the research and development of high-grade sucrose esters. It possesses a wide and long-term experience and maintains an intricate sales and promotion network in Europe and the USA. Furthermore, Sisterna has developed countless proven and innovative applications of these emulsifiers for the food and other industries. Convince yourself of the multifaceted effect of sucrose esters, and then choose the best: Sisterna® sucrose esters

Partner in finding solutions

Sisterna distinguishes itself as a flexible partner that will help to find technical solutions in the development, improvement and process optimising of food products. Our technological edge and our detailed product know-how enable us to provide specific benefits which these natural sucrose esters offer in formulations. From the Netherlands Sisterna presents the most up-to-date service in sales support and knowledge development. Food technologists develop new applications and concepts and improve emulsification, texture and stability of products. The lab facilitates manufacture of today’s products and those of tomorrow.

Why use emulsifiers?

Emulsifiers are widely used in the food industry to improve texture, stability or other features of food products. The most commonly used emulsifiers are lecithin and mono- and diglycerides. In many food products they do just what the manufacturer requires. In some products, however, they do not do their job to complete satisfaction. Sometimes the food emulsion is unstable, there is an oil layer on top of the product or the production process does not run smoothly due to emulsion separation or stickiness. This could be a good reason to start looking for a specialty emulsifier with a high HLB-value.

HLB-value

Hydrophilic Lipophilic Balance –value is a measure for the emulsifying power of an emulsifier. A high HLB value, 10-18, indicates very strong oil in water emulsifier preferring water to dissolve in. Low HLB values are strong water in oil emulsifiers and are more oil soluble. Sometimes HLB-value is misunderstood: the choice for a certain HLB value does not depend on the water or fat content of the recipe. For example mayonnaise containing 80% fat is still an oil in water emulsion (oil droplets in a continuous water phase) and is ideally produced with a high HLB-value emulsifier.

What are sucrose esters?

Sucrose esters are obtained by esterifying sucrose with edible fatty acids from palm oil. By varying the degree of esterification of the sucrose molecule it is possible to obtain emulsifiers with HLB values ranging from 1 up to 16 for the high mono esters. This enables them to be used as emulsifiers in virtually all food products. All sucrose esters can be declared as ‘emulsifier E473’ or ‘sucrose esters’.

Benefits of Sisterna® sucrose esters

• High grade emulsifiers
• Wide HLB spectrum
• Neutral in taste, odour and colour
• Soluble in (cold) water
• Stable under HTST conditions
• Natural and renewable raw materials
• Kosher, non-GMO, vegetarian

Applications with Sisterna® sucrose esters

Sisterna sucrose esters are used in many food categories such as bakery, confectionery, cereals, dairy, ice cream and sauces. Manufacturers have multiple reasons to work with sucrose esters, for example it can improve the production process by reducing mixing time or keeping viscosities low. Stickiness of food products slows down production rate and increases the number of cleaning stops. Sucrose esters have successfully remedied this in the manufacturing of cereal bars.

Sucrose esters are also more and more used in low fat alternatives. In these products the mouth feel provided by fat has to be maximised, a high HLB emulsifier such as Sisterna SP70 (HLB 15) makes the fat globules much smaller and therefore provides good eating properties.

The quality of products can be improved. A bakery product will have a finer crumb structure and a softer texture, the stability of dairy or sauces will be improved, the texture of a mousse finer and ice cream a better flavour. In confectionery sucrose esters have very unsuspected functions, for which Sisterna developed special blends named ‘Sucrosilk®’.

Functions of Sisterna® sucrose esters

Although sucrose esters are categorised as emulsifiers their function is not only emulsification. Functions such as aeration, texturisation, protein protection or starch interaction and fat or sugar crystallisation are often used. Sucrose esters are unique in a way that they can boost other emulsifiers and improve the air bubble structure or prevent proteins from browning or keep starches from early staling. The effect on sugar and fat crystallisation is primarily used in confections to prevent fat bloom in chocolate and to accelerate crystallisation in fine grained sugar confection.

Sucrosilk® in confectionery

Sucrosilk is a blend of selected sucrose ester grades on a carrier of powdered sugar. The blend has a perfect fit in confectionery. It is a new alternative to commonly used emulsifiers such as lecithin and mono-, diglyceride. Sucrosilk® is applied in confectionery such as hard candy, chewies, cereal bars, caramel and fondant. The blend is used either to improve emulsification, control sugar crystallisation or to reduce stickiness of confectionery to equipment, teeth or wrappers.

Table 2: dosages and functionalities of Sucrosilk®

o First choice
• Good alternative

Contact details:

More details about Sisterna and sucrose esters and an overview of all our distributors can be found on www.sisterna.com.

Sisterna B.V.
Oostelijke Havendijk 15
4704 RA Roosendaal
P.O. Box 1308
4700 BH Roosendaal
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0) 165 582592
Fax: +31 (0) 165 558304
Email: info@sisterna.com
www.sisterna.com