Process of preparing margarine products

A process for preparing margarine or margarine-like plastic fatty emulsion food spread resembling butter in consistency and containing an emulsifier or an emulsifier system exhibiting both stabilizing and destabilization functions comprising the steps of:

• a. preparing an aqueous phase from the group consisting of water, skim milk, an aqueous phase containing milk solids and mixtures thereof with an effective amount of up to about 10% by weight of the spread of a stabilizing emulsifier to stabilize the emulsion during homogenization as well as any heat treatment;
• b. preparing a molten fat, said fat having a dilatation value at 25.degree.C of about 100 to 400 mm.sup.3 /25g;
• c. preparing a fatty phase by mixing with said molten fat an effective amount of up to about 1% by weight of the spread of a destabilization emulsifier to maintain the final food spread in a destabilized condition;
• d. dispersing 70 to 90 parts by weight of said molten fatty phase in 10 to 30 parts by weight of said aqueous phase and forming an emulsion wherein the fatty phase is the dispersed phase;
• and
• e. cooling said emulsion while at rest to a temperature between 10.degree.C and -25.degree.C until the percentage of solid crystallized material amounts to at least 5% to form the spread, and wherein during said cooling step there is effected a destabilization of said spread to a degree of 0.15 to 0.75 whereby there is distributed in the dispersed phase a proportion of the aqueous component being measured by a decrease in electrical conductivity of the product, said decrease being not less than 5% and not more than 80% of the electrical conductivity of said emulsion prior to crystallization, said emulsifier or emulsifier system having stabilizing and destabilizing properties, being present in an amount of from about 0.1% to about 10% by weight of the total emulsion.