Study of rheological properties of margarine

Margarines from the rheological point of view are thixotropic plastic semisolids that change their plastic character with changes in the portions of the fat and aqueous phases. Contrary to lard and shortening, the emulsions containing ca. 85 and 15% of the fat and aqueous phases, respectively, follow the Casson equation (similarly as butter), whereas those containing 40 and 60%, respectively, satisfy the Herschel‐Bulkley equation, which affects remarkably the way of evaluating experimental data. A new precise, and objective rheometrical method was developed for evaluating flow properties, which enables one to check quality and stability of margarines over a wide temperature interval just in the course of their production, and this may be helpful during the optimization of technology processes and standardization of product quality.