Lipid Structural Properties

Dr Ian NortonChief Scientist

Unilever – An introduction

“Meeting everyday needs of people everywhere”

Research within Unilever provides our core business with competitive

advantage from Science and Technology.

innovation centre

R&D in Unilever

central research laboratory

R&D Expenditure 2000: £723 million (approx. 2.5% of turnover;

10% is used for Corporate development).

Build and adapt science and technology for business needs

Translate business and consumer needs into science and technology challenges.

Develop regulatory, safety and environmental management processes and procedures.

Collaborate with external partners and develop professional networks to ensures that Unilever benefits from new ideas and techniques in science and technology wherever they occur.

Recruit and train high quality technical staff for the business.

Role of Research

Colworth R&D

Colworth R&D Main Activities

- Research Centre for: - Ice Cream, Tea, Frozen Foods- The Safety Centre for Unilever- Corporate Visionary Projects- Underpinning Science: - Consumer Science

- Health & Nutrition

- Biotechnology (Plants, Human cell biology etc)

- Process Science

- Colloid Science

- Material Science

- Measurement Science

Margarine and Low Fat Spreads

EMs of Low fat Spreads

• Crystal networks

• Crystal Shells (Sintered crystals at the oil/water interface.

• Crystal melting to impart flavour release and mouthfeel.From fundamental science to products

on the supermarket shelves.

Manipulation of crystal structures

EM of Palm Oil Spherulites Taken from Filter Cake Following Dry Fractionation

Without (left) and with (right) 0.2% membrane lipids

Note change in regularity and density of spherulitesWork carried out by Paul Smith (now at Surface Chemistry Institute, Sweden) while at Colworth.

10m10m

Edible Barrier

Control of crystal morphology yields flat crystals in Cotebar S, similar to beeswax or paraffin wax.This leads to a greater tortuosity than other fats and creates a better moisture barrier.

From fundamental

science to industrial products.

(Cotebar® S )

Interests in Lipid structuring

• Crystallisation Kinetics (nucleation, secondary nucleation, growth, models etc)

• Re-crystallisation (control, role of solubility terms etc)

• Fractionation

• Network formation, stability and melting

• Lipid interchangeability

• Conceptual and mathematical models

Examples of Unilever Products

“For a fast moving consumer goods company like Unilever, the implications of rapid progress (in research) are especially profound”.

Niall Fitzgerald (Unilever Chairman).