Invented more than 30 years ago, activated powdered emulsifiers are unlike ordinary food ingredient emulsifiers. While the latter are usually carried on shortening, powdered emulsifiers are activated on starch in a highly sophisticated extrusion process. As a result, they offer several benefits to industrial cake manufacturers, including optimised quality, moistness, mouthfeel, shelf-life and production performance.

Here are 10 reasons why powdered emulsifiers typically outperform other forms:

#1 Reduced Complexity
Compared with cake gels, shortenings and other emulsifiers in paste form, powdered emulsifiers simplify production, reducing the number of processing steps. No pre-hydration or pre-emulsification is needed, which means they can be added directly to the cake batter in a fully automated process. As a result, adding powdered emulsifiers during cake production requires only a few minutes of preparation.

#2 Lower Dosages
Powdered emulsifiers have a higher emulsifier content than typical cake gels, which means lower dosages are required to achieve high-quality results.

#3 Faster Production
Powdered emulsifiers act very rapidly in a cake batter, enabling you to accelerate output on your production lines. This extra speed is primarily achieved as a result of the dispensing process. A 20 kg bag of powdered emulsifier boasts a surface area as large as six football fields, which translates to fast dispensing, uptake and incorporation of air.

#4 Fewer Failures
No one likes a failed production batch. Theyre hard on the bottom line and can delay deliveries to your customers. Powdered emulsifiers make potentially contradictory or undesirable effects less likely to occur—and far easier to manage if they do. Thats because they comprise just one active emulsifier and one food ingredient—rice flour—keeping everything simple.

#5 Less Waste, Easier Storage
Scraping cake gel emulsifier residue out of a container can cause delays and theres always a little left inside that you cant get to, which usually ends up being thrown out. By contrast, powder cant wait to escape from the bag—with only the tiniest of amounts left behind. Its worth noting that powdered emulsifiers also take up less storage space, partly because less is needed for the same results and partly because the bags they are packaged in stack more easily than buckets of gel.

#6 Cleaner Label
Why list more ingredients on your label than you need to? With one active emulsifier and one food ingredient, powdered emulsifiers will leave plenty of white space on-pack to please consumers, health authorities and lobbyists.

#7 Leaner Product Development, Easier Procurement
What if your R&D department could cut down on the time it takes to develop new products? With powdered emulsifiers, this is possible. They are unique in that they can be used to make just about anything, with a built-in ability to handle a range of challenges such as low-fat, low-sugar, high temperatures and more. Furthermore, because the same powdered emulsifier works in many different types of cakes, procurement is simplified, too.

#8 Kinder To The Planet
Powdered emulsifiers represent a big win for the environment. Why? Answering that requires a list-within-a-list:

·         They are plant-based, with RSPO-certified palm versions readily available

·         They contain fewer chemicals—most cake gels require a range of additives such as ethanol and propylene-glycol to meet functional specifications

·         They are available from entirely carbon-neutral production plants

• Energy use is minimised in production thanks to rapid functionality and also afterwards because they dont need temperature-controlled storage
• Transportation loads are reduced because theres no water component in the emulsifier
• They are delivered in bags, not large plastic containers, which results in less waste and requires fewer resources to recycle
• Dosage accuracy is improved, cutting emulsifier and cake production waste

#9 Longer Shelf-Life
In powdered emulsifiers, the active whipping component is fixed to the starch particles during the extrusion process. This makes them extremely stable in storage. In fact, a powdered emulsifier is likely to remain useful—without any refrigeration—for as long as 18 months. This delivers plenty of upsides. For example, it means you can purchase larger volumes of powdered emulsifiers, enabling purchase when pricing is favorable to avoid seasonal variations in gel quality. Youre also less likely to have to dump old stock if youve misjudged demand. The extremely hot 2018 summer in the USA, for example, reduced demand for cakes and caught plenty of bakers off-guard.

#10 Healthier Products
The food industry, under pressure from consumers and regulators, has been working hard to eradicate partially hydrogenated oils due to the health risks associated with them. In this respect, powdered palm oil-based emulsifiers are a great option for cakes. They make it easy to create a non-PHO recipe with a very similar mouthfeel and texture to the PHO-containing original. Powdered emulsifiers work extremely well with liquid oils, resulting in PHO-free cakes that are even more delicious but also low in saturated fats.

Multiple Advantages
The benefits realised when using activated, powdered emulsifiers in cakes will, of course, depend on the recipe, processing conditions and individual ingredient pricing. But with so many advantages over traditional emulsifier gels, it is well worth investigating their potential.