Development of a New Anti-Foamer for Food Processing

In food processing, uncontrolled foaming media can result in a significant loss in production capacity, due to inefficient mixing or pumping, clogged process lines, overflows which result in spills, and product waste. Mechanical methods of foam management often have limited effectiveness. The addition of foam control agents is considered to be more practical and is more widely employed to minimize production losses due to foaming. A foam control agent can include a defoamer and an antifoamer. An antifoamer is designed to prevent foam, whereas a defoamer eliminates existing foam.

Potatoes have a dry substance content of about 25 % which consists mostly of starch, crude fibers and proteins. During processing of potatoes, foam is generated because foam active substances (starch and protein) are extracted by water during transport, washing, peeling and cutting. Like potatoes, sugar beets have a dry substance content of about 25% and also contain saponin, a bio-surfactant, which can cause foaming during processing. In the case of sugar beet processing, some of the foam generated by saponin can be stabilized by sugars. As a result a foam control agent which is useful for potato processing may not be useful for sugar beet processing.

One class of foam control agents used for food processing include block copolymers composed of ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, and/or butylene oxide. These types of products are believed to be effective since at increased temperatures, they are insoluble in solution, thereby causing an increase in the surface tension of the system, which results in foam collapse. Another class of foam control agents for food applications include polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) materials. PDMS polymers are effective because they have low surface tensions, and are also highly insoluble in water. However, growing customer demand for solutions based on renewable materials has spurred the development of new more bio-based foam control agents. In this presentation, several new classes of materials which are, at least in part, bio-based and showed excellent antifoaming properties for sugar beet or potato processing will be discussed.