Homogenized product - what is this new concept?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-18 00:51

Should I be afraid and put aside a product labeled "homogenized"? But many mothers do this when buying baby food, mistakenly believing that a homogenized product is the same as a genetically modified one. Let's figure out what these two concepts really mean and calm the worried mothers.

So, due to adverse environmental factors, soil salinity, as well as other factors that negatively affect the growth and fruiting of plants, in recent decades, science has taken a step towards creating hardy varieties of potatoes, wheat, corn through genetic modification. It is still too early to judge whether this is good or bad. Not enough time has passed yet to understand the implications of these modifications.

Homogenized product: what is it?

Homogenization is the mixing of products until the composition is completely homogeneous. There is homogenization mechanical and under pressure. Combine in the mixerdough ingredients are mechanical mixing. An example of pressure mixing would be a mixer. Only a homogenizer at high speed and under high pressure crushes the product to absolute homogeneity. Now let's get back to the stores, where products with the inscription "homogenized" are increasingly appearing on the shelves. What it is is now more clear. But are such products useful? To find out, you need to know what happens in the process of processing fruits when turning them, for example, into homogenized juice.

Description of the homogenization process

To get such products at home, use blenders or mixers. Something similar happens in special high-pressure homogenizers. The whole process includes a series of operations:

1. Fruits are peeled, washed, rubbed.
2. Sugar syrup is added.
3. The mass is crushed in a homogenizer, where the contact of juice and air is excluded, which allows preserving the value of the fruit components.
4. Under high pressure, a special apparatus passes raw materials, grinding it to a mushy state.
5. The product is packed hot, at a temperature of 90°.

Application of homogenization

Homogenized products have proven themselves in a number of industries. Thus, the dairy and food industries receive products of high quality and a longer shelf life. Homogenizers used in pharmaceuticalindustry have proven how much more efficient they are than conventional agitators and colloid mills. These devices began to be used in biotechnology and in cosmetic products. In all these industries, the output is a homogenized product. What is it, for example? Absolutely homogeneous creams and emulsions; baby purees, as well as butter and pastes; water based paints. That is, products with the best dispersion of ingredients. This is no longer in doubt. Moreover, it is no longer possible to imagine the production of many products without treatment in a homogenizer. And if, nevertheless, you still have the question: “Homogenized - what is it?”, - the answer will be one: “This is the know-how of the 21st century.”