Emulsions have garnered significant attention within a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, food production, and cosmetics. The importance of emulsions across these sectors is attributed to their versatility and unique properties, such as increased interfacial area and the ability to deliver compounds insoluble in water or to mask the flavor of unpalatable ingredients. A comprehensive and precise assessment of the physicochemical properties, structural features, and stability of emulsions is an indispensable phase in the pursuit of new formulations and the improvement of manufacturing protocols. The characterization of emulsions encompasses an array of methodologies designed to determine their attributes, such as droplet size, distribution, concentration, surface charge, and others. In this review, we explore the techniques most frequently used to characterize emulsions and critically assess the significance each method holds in understanding the behavior and predicting the stability of emulsions. We elucidate the basic principles of these methods while emphasizing what information can be gathered from them, and how to effectively interpret this information to optimize the properties of emulsions, crucial from the standpoints of food and other industries, such as long-term stability and easy processing.

Set-yoghurts from goat, cow, and sheep milk from middle lactation period were produced. In fresh yoghurts and after 14 days cold storage the following properties were analysed: hardness, adhesiveness, and extrusion force using instrumental texture analyzer, syneresis using drainage and centrifugal methods and microstructure using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Yoghurt from goat milk was characterized by lower hardness, adhesiveness, extrusion forces, and higher susceptibility to syneresis than yoghurts from cow and sheep milk. Microstructure of goat milk yoghurt was more delicate in comparison with microstructure of cow and sheep milk yoghurt. The composition and/or properties of goat milk for yoghurt production, or processing conditions need to be modified to obtain the proper texture and reduced syneresis in final product.

Elderberries, sea buckthorn, and sloe berries are fruits of wild-grown bushes, valued in folk medicine for their health-promoting properties but still rarely applied in food. The aim of the present study was to produce probiotic yoghurts with a 10% addition of sweetened purees prepared from elderberries (EPY), sea buckthorn (SBPY), and sloe berries (SPY) and to assess their chemical composition, acidity, content of polyphenols and anthocyanins, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and antiradical power (ARP), level of starter microbiota, concentration of acetaldehyde and diacetyl, syneresis, instrumentally measured color and texture parameters, and sensory acceptance. The results were compared to those obtained for plain probiotic yoghurt (PPY) and the changes tracked during 1 month of cold storage at 2 week intervals. The addition of elderberry and sloe berries significantly increased the antioxidant capacity of probiotic yoghurts, probably due to a high content of polyphenols, especially anthocyanins. However, anthocyanins were more stable in the EPY when compared to the SPY. All yoghurt treatments were characterized by good sensory quality and viability of starter microorganisms, including probiotic strains during cold storage. Elderberries promoted the evolution of diacetyl in yoghurts during storage and, together with sloe berries, produced increased syneresis and the greatest changes in color profile compared to PPY.

Yoghurts were produced from cow’s milk containing 1, 2 and 3 kg milk fat/100 kg or 1, 2 and 3kg of oat-maltodextrin/100 kg (maltodextrin included 5 kg β-glucan/100 kg). Non-fat yoghurt, without the addition of maltodextrin, was used as a control product. The yoghurts were estimated for sensory properties and using instrumental texture profile analysis (TPA) and rheological investigations, which had to set flow curves and their description by the Ostwald de Waele and Casson models; counting apparent viscosity were also done. Replacing milk fat with maltodextrin in yoghurts does not show significant differences in the sensory analysis, rheological properties and most of the texture parameters. The addition of milk fat in the amount of 1 kg/100 kg or maltodextrin in 2 kg/100 kg caused an increase in apparent viscosity of yoghurts. The addition of oat-maltodextrin caused a decrease in consistency index value and a deviation from the Newtonian flow and yield stress, similar to the effects caused by adding milk fat. No relationship between the results of the sensory evaluation, the instrumental texture parameters and rheological properties, especially in yoghurts containing milk fat, were shown