1 Certain additives help change the acid-base balance of foods to get a certain flavor or color. 2  Leavening agents that release acids when they are heated react with baking soda to help biscuits, cakes, and other baked goods rise. Emulsifiers are the chemicals that make emulsions happen. Nature uses proteins and phospholipids, and many emulsifiers used in modern food production are based on these natural substances. An emulsifier is a molecule in which one end likes to be in an oily environment and the other in a water environment. To make an oil-in-water emulsion, such as mayonnaise, droplets of oil molecules are surrounded by the oil-loving end of the emulsifier molecules. Fats’ main contribution to leavening is creating air cells, which are necessary for leavening to take place. These air cells are created during the mixing process, think “cream together the sugar and butter,” and these air cells are later incorporated into the batter when the other ingredients are added. Bread. It is possible to make bread without emulsifiers but the result is often dry, low in volume and easily stales. As little as 0.5% emulsifier added to the dough is enough to achieve an enhanced volume, a softer crumb structure and a longer shelf-life. There are two types of emulsifiers used in bread: dough strengtheners (e.g. diacetyl tartaric acid esters (E 472e) and sodium or calcium stearoyl-2-lactylate (E 481, E 482)) and dough softeners (e.g. mono-and di-glycerides of fatty acids (E 471)). As a control, a set of biscuits was made without any leavening. As the common conception is that baking soda requires an acid to properly rise, an additional set of biscuits was made with flour, baking soda, water, and vinegar (acetic acid). In mayonnaise, the emulsifier is the phospholipids present in egg yolks – they are such successful emulsifiers that as much as 80% oil can be dispersed in the aqueous phase. Ice cream is another food that would not exist were it not for emulsifiers.
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002435.htm http://www.faia.org.uk/emulsifiers-in-food/ http://www.theauberginechef.com/ingredients-fats/ http://www.eufic.org/article/en/food-safety-quality/food-additives/artid/emulsifiers-food/ http://www.eufic.org/article/en/food-safety-quality/food-additives/artid/emulsifiers-food/ http://www.orbitals.com/self/leaven/index.html http://www.faia.org.uk/emulsifiers-in-food/
is emulsifier a leaven