Currently, I develop a chocolate milk containing beverages, with pH 6,8, 1% protein and 1% fat. It is stabilized by 0,2 % of microcrystaline cellulose and 0,055 % of xanthan gum. After a week, serum separation starts to occur. It is a clear brown liquid on the top of the drink. No sedimentation and no creaming occur. Can someone has a hypothesis why this separation occur?
Thank you
Interactions may occur between functional additives and protein, as well as other components of milk and chocolate, which may result in destabilization of the mixture.
Could be that the phenolic compounds/ tannins in the chocolate are complexing with the protein in the milk to cause enhanced aggregation. The role that calcium plays as a divalent cation in milk is also important for protein stability especially if any other divalent cation's are added eg magnesium etc
Thank you so much for your answers.
Indeed I added a quite high amount of cocoa powder (2%). Currently I also work in coffee milk and vanilla milk containing beverages. Both of them are also stabilized by the same type of stablizers as in my cocoa milk drink, but I do not find any serum separation in the coffee and vanilla milk. Perhaps, indeed there is an interaction between protein and the cocoa polyphenols. Do you have any suggestion how to prevent it?
You have to play with different additives. Have you tried making it even more viscous? What about other stabilizers? Usually carrageenan is successful for stabilizing chocolate milk drinks.
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