Microstructural Engineering of Milk Fat and Related Products

Abstract

Milk fat is widely used as a key ingredient in many food products because of its importance in the development of the structural, mechanical, and sensory properties of food products. The functionality of milk fat is greatly dependent on its thermal properties (i.e. crystallization and melting behavior). Therefore, the characterization of the crystal structure of milk fat as affected by thermal processes, composition, and other various processing conditions has been extensively studied in order to understand structure–function relationships as well as to gain opportunities for microstructural engineering of the crystal network formed by milk fat