The creation of aerated emulsions, such as whipped creams, is a well-tested way of producing bakery fillings. Since the removal of hydrogenated fats, the standard way of making such bakery creams is to use saturated fats to stabilize such emulsions. Saturate fats form structures that encapsulate oil, air and water in the emulsion. However, saturated fats may be undesirable from a nutritional point of view. Saturated fats may reduce the flavor release and mouthfeel of products.

In orderto reduce saturated fat levels but still enable stable aerated emulsion, fat replacers and stabilizers such as emulsifiers may be used. In products based on vegetable oils or fats, fat based emulsifiers may be added to provide whippability and foam stability. They induce the formation of a stable emulsion, may improve the rate of aeration, and the total aeration (whipping overrun) that may be obtained. Fat based emulsifiers typically used to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions include: lecithin, hydroxylated lecithin; mono, di, or polyglycerides of fatty acids, such as stearin and palmitin mono and diglycerides, polyoxyethylene ethers of fatty esters of polyhydric alcohols, such as the polyoxyethylene ethers of sorbitan monostearate (polysorbate 60) or the polyoxyethylene ethers of sorbitan distearate; fatty esters of polyhydric alcohols such as sorbitan monostearate; polyglycerol esters of mono and diglycerides such as hexaglyceryl distearate; mono- and diesters of glycols such as propylene glycol monostearate, and propylene glycol monopalmitate, succinoylated monoglycerides; and the esters of carboxylic acids such as lactic, citric, and tartaric acids with the mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids such as glycerol lacto palmitate and glycerol lacto stearate, and calcium or sodium stearoyl lactylates and all members of the sucrose ester family thereof, all varieties of diacetyltartaric esters of fatty acids, and distilled lactylated or acetylated monglycerides, and the like. Emulsifiers are typically applied in amounts from 0.1% to 5% by weight of the total emulsion. Examples of emulsifier systems are known in the art.

For instance EP45528S concerns whippable non-dairy creams with low fat levels (15-25 wt%), that possess excellent properties, like a whipping time less than 6 min. EP0682477 describes whippable, water- continuous fat emulsions comprising 10-40 wt % of a fat mixture with a composition as obtainable by blending at least fats A and B: 0.01-2 wt % of a thickener: 0.01-2 wt % of an emulsifier system and 1-8 wt % of a milk protein compound: fats A and B being: low in SAFA and free of trans ( = fat A), high in PUFA ( = fat B), while the N5 of the fat mixture ranges from 20 to 40 and the N35 is less than 5 and the SAFA content of the fat mixture is less than 35 mol %. It is an object of the invention to enable whippable low SAFA emulsions without added stabilizers.

It is another object of the invention to enable whippable low SAFA emulsions with enhanced flavor release properties.

The invention relates to a low SAFA fat composition for use in an aerated emulsion, such as a filling cream, wherein the composition comprises less than 35% by weight of SAFA based on the total weight of fatty acid residues; wherein the composition comprises from 2-8 % by weight C12:0 and from 12-15% by weight C16:0; and wherein the composition is preferably whippable to a stable cream with water without the addition of stabilizers. Whippable implies that the composition can be whipped to an aerated composition within a few minutes (1 to 10 minutes) at room temperature (20 °C) or at lower temperatures such as 15 °C and remains sufficiently stable (i.e., it retains its physical shape) for at least 2 hours. The whippable product may be whipped with or without additional ingredients such as various forms of sugars.

It is advantageous if the composition comprises less than 30% by weight of SAFA, preferably less than 25%.

Preferably, the composition comprises from 3-6% by weight of C12:0.

In a preferred embodiment, the composition further comprises from 1-5% C18:0.

Preferably, the composition comprises C12 and C16 in a ration of from 1:5 to 1:2 by weight.

It is preferred if the composition comprises an interesterified randomized oil mixture of palm olein and palm kernel stearine.

In a preferred embodiment, the composition comprises an interesterified randomized oil mixture of palm olein and palm kernel stearine.

More preferably, the composition is an interesterified randomized oil mixture of palm olein and palm kernel stearine, subsequently mixed with a liquid oil, wherein the liquid oil is selected from sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.

It is preferred if the composition is whippable with water in a fat to water weight ratio of from 20:1 to 1:1, more preferably from 10:1 to 2:1, more preferably from 5:1 to 2:1.

Preferably, the fat composition has a solid fat content of from 10-30% in the temperature range from 5- 20 °C, and a solid fat content of from 1-10% in the temperature range from 25-35 °C. Solid Fat content (SFC) is determined using NMR spectroscopy according to the lUPAC 2.150a method. Such a melting profile was found to give a pleasant flavor impact in whipped creams prepared with such mixtures, both when evaluated in a cooled environment (eg under 10 °C) as well as at room temperature (20 °C).

More preferably, the fat composition has a solid fat content of from 15-25% in the temperature range from 5-15 °C, and a solid fat content of from 5-10% at 25 °C and a solid fat content below 5% at 35 °C.

It is advantageous if the composition comprises less than 3 % by weight of diglycerides, preferably less than 1%; and wherein the composition comprises less than 1% by weight monoglycerides, preferably less than 0.5% by weight, more preferably less than 0.1% by weight.

In a preferred embodiment, the composition comprises C16 and C18 which when combined comprise more than 50% of the fatty acid residues, and wherein C16 and C18:l are present in a ratio of from 3:1 to 1:3, preferably approximately 2:1.

Fatty acid residue composition was determined using fatty acid methyl ester analysis (FAME) gas chromatography according to ISO 15304. Cx:y refers to a fatty acid having x carbon atoms and y double bonds; The extension 'c' refers to cis fatty acids and 't' refers to trans fatty acids. Fatty acids are straight chain carboxylic acids having from 8 to 24 carbon atoms and optionally one or more double bonds.

The invention further relates to an aerated emulsion, such as a filling cream, comprising a fat composition as described herein, carbohydrates, and water.

In a preferred embodiment, the emulsion comprises from 15-75% of a fat composition according to the preceding claims, from 20-30% carbohydrates, and from 5-50% water, wherein the carbohydrates, water and fat amount up to a 100%, and wherein the aerated emulsion optionally comprises other ingredients.

The invention will now be further elucidated by the following non-limiting examples.

Examples

Example 1: preparation of fat compositions

A fat composition A as described herein was prepared based on an interesterified mixture of palm olein and palm kernel stearine as a source of C12:0, subsequently blended with rape seed oil, with a calculated IV value of 92.6. As references, reference 1 is a blend of an interesterified palm olein midfraction mixed with an interesterified palm olein, and reference 2 is a blend of interesterified palm and palm kernel, blended with two other mid fractions of palm. Analytical results are displayed in table 1. The fatty acid compositions are characterized in the content of saturated fatty acids (SAFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). SAFA are fatty acids without unsaturated bonds, such as palmitic acid (C16:0) and oleic acid (C18:0). As defined herein, SAFA is the total of C8:0, C10:0, C12:0, C14:0, C16:0, C17:0, C18:0, C20:0, C22:0 and C24:0. Mono unsaturated fatty acids (MU FA) are fatty acids having a single carbon-carbon double bond, which may be in either the cis or trans configuration. Total trans is the total amount of trans fatty acids.

The group of MUFA includes but is not restricted to palmitoleic acid (C16:l cis) and oleic acid (C18:l cis). As defined herein, MUFA is the total of C16:l c/t, C18:l c/t, C20:l c/t, C22:l c/t and C24:l c/t; wherein c/t indicates the combined amounts of cis and trans fatty acids for that particular number of carbon atoms. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have more than one carbon-carbon double bond, such as two or three double bonds. SAFA, MU FA and PUFA values are calculated by adding up amounts of the respective compounds as determined through the FAME analysis.

Table 1: Analytical results

A Ref 1 Ref 2

C6:0 0.0 0.0 0.0

C8:0 0.2 0.0 0.8

C10:0 0.2 0.0 1.1

C12:0 3.3 0.2 17.5

C14:0 1.3 1.2 6.0

C15:0 0.1 0.0 0.0

C16:0 14.8 45.4 41.1

C16:1 0.2 0.2 0.1

C17:0 0.1 0.1 0.1

C18:0 2.1 4.5 4.1

C18:1 51.3 36.9 23.7

C18:2 16.2 10.6 4.9

C18:3 7.6 0.3 0.1

C20:0 0.5 0.3 0.3

C20:1 1.2 0.1 0.1

C20:2 0.0 0.0 0.0

C22:0 0.3 0.0 0.0

C22:1 0.3 0.0 0.0 C24:0 0.1 0.0 0.1

C24:1 0.1 0.0 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

SAFA 23.0 51.9 71.1

UFA 53.2 37.2 23.9

PUFA 23.8 10.9 5.0

trans 0.0 0.1 0.0

Example 2: Solid fat content

The solid fat content of the composition according to the invention and the two references were measured at a number of temperatures by NMR spectroscopy. The results are displayed in the table and graphically shown in figure 1.

N A Reference 1 Re

5°C. 20 63 79

10"C. 17 54 73

15°C. 14 40 55

20°C. 11 25 35

25°C. 8 14 17

30°C. 6 8 5

35°C. 4 4 0

Solid Fat content (SFC) is determined using NMR spectroscopy according to the lUPAC 2.150a method. Solid fat contents at x °C are denoted as Nx. For example, a solid fat content at 20 °C is referred to as N20.

Example 3: cream composition

The fat compositions were used to prepare emulsions with water levels from 5% up to 50%. Additional ingredients may be used to produce a bakery cream, for instance fats and oil (10-50%), carbohydrates, in particular sugars (glucose syrup, saccharide, dextrose, lactose etc.), and often milk powder and are used to create the cream. Cream compositions suitable as fillings for bakery were prepared using the fat compositions described in example 1, using the following recipe:

Ingredients g %

water 250 27.6

fat composition 250 27.6

dextrose 60 6.6

sugar 100 11.0

Sorbitol syrup 20 2.2

Fructose syrup 80 8.8

Glycerine 20 2.2

starch 20 2.2

whey powder 4 0.4

skimmed milk powder 100 11.0

Rose flavour 1 0.1

total 905 100.0

The ingredients were mixed and the resulting emulsions were whipped into an aerated emulsion/cream with a density of 0.61kg/m3 (A), 0.62 kg/m3 (refl) and 0.66 kg/m3 (ref2).

The cream composition based on fat composition A had approximately 23% SAFA by weight.

Example 4: Sensory profile

The creams were subjected to a trained sensory test panel for the composition stored at 4°C and 20°C. The creams were evaluated for Hardness, Meltdown, Coolness, Waxiness, Flavor Release time and Flavor Impact. The sensory profile at 4 °C is shown in Fig 2a, the sensory profile at 20 °C is shown in Fig 2b.

From the sensory profiles it is shown that the cream prepared using fat composition A is softer than the references at lower temperatures, has a higher meltdown and coolness, lower waxiness and a very notable improved (shorter) flavor release time and higher flavor impact.