How do liquids stay homogeneous and not have settling issues, such as Coke or milk?
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For a product that has both water and oil, such as milk, it undergoes a process called homogenization. The product is forced through a super tiny opening at extremely high pressures. This breaks the large droplets of fat into tiny little specks.
However, products that have only been homogenized will still separate out over time. This is where ingredients called emulsifiers come into play. An emulsifier is a molecule that loves fat on one side and loves water on the other. After the milk is homogenized, the fat loving side of the emulsifier surrounds the tiny specks of fat. Now the outside of the speck loves water rather than fat. So whenever two specks of fat coated in emulsifier bump into each other, nothing happens because the fat in the specks cannot come back together to create a larger speck.
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