Food Emulsion Design: Rheology, Stability, and Applications
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Physics and (Bio)Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2026 | Viewed by 9
Special Issue Editors
Interests: aquatic products; pickering emulsions; marine protein; byproducts; emulsion gels; delivery system
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: food nutrition; intestinal delivery and absorption; food precision delivery systems; food component regulation
Interests: food science; aquatic products; food processing; food preservation; food safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Emulsions are systems composed of incompatible phases, water and oil. Various types of emulsion systems exist, including traditional emulsions, Pickering emulsions, emulsion gels, and emulsion-based oleogels. Emulsions can be constructed using proteins, polysaccarides, oligosaccharides, and their complexes, and their properties can be invluenced by ions, pH, temperature and many other factors.
Designing an emulsion is a complex multi-objective optimization process that requires balancing rheology, stability, and application performance. Rheology, a key physical property of emulsions, directly affects their processability and their ability to maintain physical stability. Rheological properties such as viscosity, elasticity, and thixotropy can be precisely tailored by selecting appropriate emulsifiers, adjusting the volume fraction of the internal phase, adding thickeners, or building three-dimensional structural networks. These strategies effectively inhibit droplet flocculation, aggregation and Ostwald ripening, thereby ensuring the stability of food emulsions throughout their shelf life.
In food processing, the design goals of emulsions must align with their specific application scenarios. Some products demand emulsions with low viscosity and high stability, whereas others require emulsion gels with high viscoelasticity and strong suspension capacity. Some food-grade emulsion systems are designed to achieve both desirable sensory qualities and structural stability. Successful formulation therefore depends on the coordinated optimization of rheological behavior, long-term stability, and application-specific performance.
The quality and stability of many foods—as well as the stability of functional components, the release of flavor compounds, the control of texture and structure, and the delivery of nutritional ingredients—are all closely related to the properties of their emulsion systems. Constructing emulsions with high stability is thus of great significance for the development of food products in the food industry.
Dr. Zhongyang Ren
Dr. Yufeng Chen
Prof. Dr. Yongqiang Zhao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- emulsion
- delivery system
- encapsulation
- bioactive components
- emulsion gels
- rheological behavior
- Pickering emulsions
- food nutrition
- intestinal delivery and absorption
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