This study aimed to examine the effect of emulsion droplet size,
from micron- to nanometric-scale, on the crystallisation behaviour
of dairy-based oil-in-water emulsions. The dairy ingredients used
were anhydrous milk fat, stearin or olein (oil phase) in combination
with whey protein or sodium caseinate (aqueous phase).
Tween80 was also used to investigate the effect of a small molecular
weight surfactant in comparison with the macromolecular
ones (whey protein concentrate and sodium caseinate). In this
study, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was employed to
monitor changes in thermal properties and phase transitions in
the emulsion systems at various size ranges during cooling at different
rates. In addition to determining crystallisation temperatures,
solid fat contents of the dairy-based emulsions were also
derived from the DSC thermograms.