Ethanol Stability

Abstract

In the previous edition of Advanced Dairy Chemistry, Horne (1992) reviewed what was mainly his work and that of colleagues at the Hannah Research Institute on the effect of ethanol addition on the stability of the casein micelle system. These studies were part of the Institute’s wider programme on micellar stability, particularly on the effects of renneting or heating milk. In that context experiments were also carried out at sub-critical ethanol levels and contributed to the effective exploitation of the theories of steric stabilization as applied to the casein micelle, the so- called ‘hairy micelle’ model of Holt (1975) and Walstra (1979). Holt and Horne (1996) recently reviewed such work in this area. Models of internal micelle structure have also to be consistent with the observations of micellar behaviour in the presence of ethanol and here we ask how well the latest suggestions stand up to this test.