Some factors influencing stickiness of butter

Summary

The term stickiness, as used in the butter industry, refers to that property of butter which permits it to remain attached to solid surfaces. It is a phenomenon in which the components of force caused by adhesion and cohesion are inseparably involved and have been described by the term ‘hesion’. Hesion measurements of commercial samples of conventionally-made butter were much higher than those of continuously-made butter. The results of experiments on conventional and laboratory continuously-made butter from the same butterfat source indicated that the characteristic crystal structure influenced the hesion values. Homogenization of Gold'n Flow and conventional commercial butters markedly increased hesion readings. When nitrogen gas was added to pre-crystallized continuously-made butter the hesion values decreased with increasing gas content. However, there was an increase in the amount of butter which remained on the adherend when it became detached from the butter surface. Limited experiments on the effect of gas content in conventional butter also indicated that an increase in gas content resulted in a decrease in hesion values with more butter remaining on the adherend. The results of this investigation indicated that the crystal structure was responsible for the adhesive property of butter and the gas content influenced the cohesive property. It would appear, then, that both the crystal structure and the gas content play an important part in causing stickiness of butter.