Activated powdered emulsifiers are unlike ordinary food ingredient emulsifiers. While the latter are usually carried on shortening, powdered emulsifiers are activated on starch in a highly sophisticated extrusion process. As a result, they offer several benefits to industrial cake manufacturers. 

1. Reduced Complexity

Powdered emulsifiers simplify production, reducing the number of processing steps. No pre-hydration or pre-emulsification is needed, which means they can be added directly to the cake batter.

2. Lower Dosages

Powdered emulsifiers have a higher emulsifier content than typical cake gels, which means lower dosages are required to achieve high-quality results.

3. Faster Production

A 20kg bag of powdered emulsifier boasts a surface area as large as six football fields, which translates to fast dispensing, uptake and incorporation of air. This means powdered emulsifiers act rapidly in a cake batter, enabling bakers to accelerate output on production lines.

4. Fewer failures

Powdered emulsifiers make contradictory or undesirable effects less likely to occur—and easier to manage if they do. That’s because they comprise just one active emulsifier and one food ingredient—rice flour —keeping everything simple.

5. Less Waste, Easier Storage

Scraping cake gel emulsifier residue from a container can cause delays. By contrast, powder leaves the bag with only the tiniest of amounts left behind. Powdered emulsifiers also require less storage space.

6. Cleaner Label

Containing one active emulsifier and one food ingredient, powdered emulsifiers will leave plenty of white space on-pack to please consumers, health authorities and lobbyists.

7. Leaner R&D, Easier Procurement

Powdered emulsifiers can make just about anything, with a built-in ability to handle challenges such as low-fat, low-sugar, high temperatures and more. As a result, procurement is simplified, too.

8. Earth Friendly

Compared with cake gels, powdered emulsifiers represent a big win for the environment. They are plant-based, with RSPO-certified palm versions readily available, and contain fewer chemicals.

9. Longer Shelf Life

In powdered emulsifiers, the active whipping component is fixed to the starch particles during extrusion. This means they are extremely stable in storage and likely to remain useful without refrigeration for up to 18 months. 

10. Healthier Products

Powdered palm oil-based emulsifiers make it easy to create a non-PHO recipe with a very similar mouthfeel and texture to the PHO-containing original, resulting in PHO-free cakes that are delicious but also low in saturated fat.

Palsgaard Inc.
101 Gibraltar Dr., Suite 2B
Morris Plains, NJ 07950
Tel: 973-998-7951
direct@us.palsgaard.com

Originally appeared in the November, 2018 issue of Prepared Foods as Powder Power!