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Foam-free and efficient: Defoamers in the food and beverage industry Foam-free and efficient: Defoamers in the food and beverage industry
Written by Cyrill Husmann
03.10.2024

Foam-free and efficient: Defoamers in the food and beverage industry

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Foam-free and efficient: Defoamers in the food and beverage industry

Cyrill Husmann

Sales & Product Manager Food

IMPAG AG

+41 43 499 25 00E-mail LinkedIn

Excessive foaming leads to a drop in production volume, productivity, and process stability. Too much foam can also ruin the consumer’s experience even in shakes and sweet drinks. Foam formation is triggered and promoted by the raw materials processed and by the manufacturing methods used. We find a countermeasure for every foaming problem, whether it is in conventional or organic quality.


Foaming is a ubiquitous phenomenon. It is desirable to a certain extent in some applications – such as beer, for example – but neither producers nor consumers really ever want there to be too much foam. By using defoamers, the amount of foam can be precisely adjusted and controlled to just the right amount, or even until there is barely any or no foam at all.

 

Typical applications for defoamers

  • Processes in which mechanical action promotes foaming, such as mixing, pumping, bottling, filtering, or shaking
  • Production methods in which gas is produced, added, or removed, such as fermentation, beverage carbonization, or vacuum evaporation
  • Foods that contain ingredients that stabilize foam, such as proteins, sugars, starches, or emulsifiers 
     

Foam formation and how it can be avoided

Surfactants that are used in the formulation, such as proteins, fatty acids, or starches, can stabilize foam on the liquid surface by various mechanisms. This slows down the liquid flow and therefore delays the bursting of the foam bubbles. Defoamers exist in the liquid as a dispersion of droplets that break the foam apart. 

Because a defoamer has a lower surface tension than the foaming system, the defoamer accumulates in the foam lamella, at the interface between air and liquid. Given the lower interfacial tension between defoamer and air, the defoamer can spread out over the foam lamella and form a bond with the air inside the foam bubble. 

As the defoamer spreads, the foam lamella becomes ever thinner until it ruptures and the air trapped inside the bubble escapes, thus causing the foam to break down.

Defoamers used in aqueous applications consist of multiple components: an active ingredient to perform the actual defoaming process, a carrier to bring it to where it is needed, and an emulsifier to ensure the stability of the active ingredient and the dispersion. Depending on the formulation, the basis of the active substance can be, among other things, vegetable oils, polyols, or an emulsion. 

 

Learn more

 

Technical service

Our partner offers its customers extensive support with applications. You can choose whether you would like to send them a foaming sample of your product, or to have them send defoamer samples to you along with dosage recommendations specific to your application.

 

Defoamers in food law

Defoamers can be divided into two categories, depending on how they are used. The distinction is whether they are used as processing agents or as food additives. The first sort are used to help the manufacturing process and should not be present in the final product, or only be present in unavoidable residual concentrations. 

Regulations for defoamers that are used exclusively as processing agents are relatively relaxed. Defoamers that are used as food additives are added intentionally to the product to influence the properties of the food, often those of the final product itself. 

They remain present in the final product and influence its quality, and are regulated relatively strictly compared to processing agents. We are happy to advise you on choosing the right product and the correct declaration.
 

 

Münzing Chemie GmbH has developed its MAGRABAR® product line specifically for the food and beverage industry, offering a wide range of processing agents and food additives for all conceivable application areas and product groups. With its headquarters in Abstatt, Germany and production sites in North America, the company has extensive synthesis and formulation capacities to best serve its global customer base. 

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