| Polysorbates |
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| Written by Rick Cavanaugh | |
| Thursday, 09 August 2007 | |
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Polysorbates are oily semi liquids that are used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The grades are usually referred to polysorbate xx where xx is a number such as 20, 40, 60 or 80. The number refers to the total number of oxyethylene groups found in the molecule .Polysorbate 20 is monolaurate, Polysorbate 40 is monopalmitate, Polysorbate 60 is monostearate and polysorbate 80 is monooleate. The terms Span and Tween are trademarked names of polysorbates. Tween and Span are trademark of Uniqema. The most common uses of polysorbates are in cosmetics and industrial items. Polysorbate 20 Polysorbate 20 is a polysorbate surfactant used an wetting agent in flavored mouth drops. This helps give a spreading feeling in the mouth and it will disperse the flavors. Polysorbate 40 Polysorbate 40 is a polysorbate not commonly used in the food industry. It is more common in personal care items. Polysorbate 60 Polysorbate 60 is a polysorbate used as a powerful wetting, dispersing emulsifying and whipping agent in many food products. It is commonly used as a wetting agent and whipping agent in cakes to help with air incorporation during the mixing stage. Polysorbate 80 Polysorbate 80 is a polysorbate commonly used in ice cream o prevent milk proteins from completely coating the fat droplets. This allows them to join together in chains to increase the air holding ability which makes the ice cream thicker as it melts. Polysorbate 80 will also increase the smoothness of ice cream. Polysorbate 80 has received negative press due to possible carcinogenesis in male rats fed 25,000 to 50,000ppm polysorbate 80 in their diet. Some companies have been looking to replace polysorbate 80 for this reason. |
