The manufacturing industry relies on the ability of emulsifiers to create stable emulsions efficiently. Values of 7– 9 indicate good wetting agents. An HLB less than 6 favors water in oil emulsions a value greater than 8 favors oil in water emulsions. Milk is an oil-in-water emulsion of milk fat (oil phase) and water with milk proteins as the emulsifier, while butter is water-in-oil emulsion.Įmulsifiers are characterized by their hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB), a number from 1 to 20 that indicates which tendency is more dominant. It is an effective and popular food emulsifier. Lecithin is a phospholipid molecule found in soy and isolated in refining of soy oil. Egg yolk contains two emulsifiers-lecithin, which promotes oil in water emulsions, and cholesterol, which promotes water in oil emulsions. Some natural examples of emulsifiers are egg yolks and mustard sauce. For solid emulsions/dispersions the term colloids is often used. Therefore technical explanation of the word emulsifier is applicable mostly when both phases, dispersed and continuous, are liquids. Secondly, when water is the dispersed phase and oil is the continuous phase they can form a water-in-oil emulsion (see Figure 1). For example, oil and water can form, first, an oil-in-water emulsion, in which the oil is the dispersed phase, and water is the continuous phase. Two liquids can form different types of emulsions. This process of mixing two immiscible phases like oil and water using an additive to form one phase after mixing is called emulsification. For example, equal amounts of water and oil when poured in a glass tend to separate after some time, but adding an emulsifier will help these liquids mix. What is EMULSIFIER? An emulsifier is an additive which helps two liquids mix.