New Zealanders have a huge appetite for ice cream, consuming an average of 23 litres per person a year, making them among the biggest eaters of the frozen treat in the world.

Massey researchers Matt Golding and Allan Hardacre, working on a hunch that interactions between starches and lipid emulsifiers might provide a new mechanism for foam stabilisation, saw an opportunity in the low-fat and fat-free ice cream market. These food manufacturers use emulsifying or foaming agents instead of fat (cream) to manipulate the structure of their products to improve its texture.

Golding is Professor of Food Colloids within the School of Food and Nutrition at Massey University. He also has additional roles as principal investigator within the Riddet Institute and as principal investigator for the Fonterra Primary Growth Partnership in Food Structure Design. His research interests include food-structure design in relation to product performance, with particular focus on colloidal systems, the behaviour of food systems during digestion and the application of novel ingredient systems in foods.

Professor Golding and Mr Hardacre set about testing their idea in a range of aerated food products. To begin with, a range of widely used commercial emulsifiers were combined with a number of modified starches to test the hypothesis. Research showed that a certain class of starches could be combined with a much lower ratio of emulsifier to achieve remarkable foamability and stability, and had the potential to show benefits when used in a food product.