The Effect of Minor Components on Milk Fat Microstructure and Mechanical Properties

ABSTRACT: Although minor polar components affected the kinetics of milk fat crystallization, its structure and mechanical properties remained unchanged. At 5 °C, a granular microstructure was observed, while at 20 °C, a combination of granular and spherulitic microstructures were observed. By 27.5 °C, only spherulites were present after 24 h. There were no differences observed in the fractal dimension (D) determined by microscopy or rheology for anhydrous milk fat, milk fat triacylglycerols and MF‐TAGs with added diacylglycerols at 5 °C. There was, however, a strong temperature effect on D, increasing from 1.87 at 5 °C to 1.98 at 22.5 °C. The yield force and storage modulus were unaffected by removal of minor components.