Sugar-sugar interactions in oil suspensions containing surfactants and effects on macroscopic phenomena.

Surfactants are used in confectionery production to control the viscosity and yield value of molten chocolate. To develop a deeper understanding of the structure-function relationship of surfactants in food-related particle suspensions, the apparent viscosity, yield value, sedimentation, and particle interactions of 10 wt% confectioner's sugar-in-canola oil suspensions were investigated in the presence of up to 1 wt% commercial soy lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR), citric acid esters of monoacylglycerols (CITREM) or ammonium phosphatides (AMP). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure attractive forces at the nano-Newton scale between a sugar substrate and a sugar crystal-functionalized AFM cantilever in an oil environment.