A GLYCERIDE MIXTURE FOR WHIPPING CREAM

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a glyceride mixture free from trans fatty acids, which can be used in the production of whipping cream, providing sensory properties close to dairy whipping cream and improved functional properties. The present invention further relates to a process for the preparation of a glyceride mixture as well as whipping cream comprising the present glyceride mixtures.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Trans fatty acids have been shown to have negative effects on the health of human beings and it is therefore desirable to reduce the overall intake of trans fatty acids. One of the most important sources of trans fatty acids in the human diet is dairy products. Many attempts have therefore been made to achieve products based on vegetable lipids that have similar characteristics to dairy whipping cream. The reasons for replacing the dairy lipids have been functional, nutritional and economical, vegetable fats are by many experts considered nutritionally better and they are also in general cheaper than dairy fat.

Over the years many different products intended to replace dairy whipping cream have been developed. The main reason for these non-dairy creams not to completely replace dairy cream is their inferior organoleptic characteristics. It has been very hard to copy the good sensory properties of whipped dairy cream, including properties like melt-off, thickness and creaminess.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has surprisingly been found that when blends of triglycerides having a certain content of stearic acid and

lauric fatty acids are interesterified, the glyceride mixture obtained can be used for production of a non-trans whipping cream with excellent nutritional and sensory properties.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention discloses a glyceride mixture for food applications consisting of an interesterified blend of different triglycerides, and which does not contain any trans fatty acids. The invention refers to a glyceride mixture containing 6- 14 % by weight of stearic acid and 40-70 % by weight of saturated C12 and C14 fatty acids, and a remainder of other C4 - C22 fatty acids, said mixture having a solid fat content, according to IUPAC 2.150a, at 20 ⁰ C of >60 %, at 30 ⁰ C of 15-50 %, and at 35°C of <15 %, and is characterised in having a randomised distribution of the fatty acids. In the interesterified blend of triglycerides, that is the glyceride mixture of the invention, the content of stearic acid should be between 6 and 14 % by weight, especially between 8 and 12 %. Furthermore the blend of lipids should have a content of lauric and myristic fatty acids between 40 and 70 % by weight, especially between 50 and 60 %. Stearic acid has been found to have a crucial impact on the whipping properties. To get the best sensory properties it has been found that a randomised positional distribution of the stearic acid is favourable. Suitable lipid starting materials for the preparation of the glyceride mixture include vegetable oils and fats, as well as fractions thereof, such as soybean oil, low-erucic acid rapeseed oil (LEAR oil), canola oil, corn or maize oil, sunflower oil, hybrid sunflower oil, palm oil, palmkernel oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, illipe butter, animal fats like lard, tallow, fish oil, triacylglycerol containing oils from

microalgae and fungi, an interesterified oil or fat component, fully hydrogenated oil or fat component, or combinations thereof .

The mentioned lipid starting materials mainly consist of a number of different glycerides of fatty acids varying in chain length from 4 carbon atoms to 22 carbon atoms. The positional distribution of the fatty acid residues in natural glycerides is often symmetrical.

According to a preferred aspect the glycerides of the glyceride mixture are mainly triglycerides (triacylglycerols) .

The invention specially refers to a glyceride mixture containing 8-12 % by weight of stearic acid and 10-16 % by weight of oleic acid.

The invention also refers to a process for preparing a glyceride mixture, which process is characterised in that a blend of triglycerides containing all together 6-14 % by weight stearic acid, 40-70 % by weight of saturated C12 and C14 fatty acids, and a remainder of other C4 - C22 fatty acids, is interesterified, resulting in a randomised distribution of the fatty acids.

Optionally the glyceride mixture is diluted with another glyceride component. Non-limiting examples of additions include 5-20 % of a vegetable oil or fat.

In an alternative embodiment, a glyceride mixture is first interesterified and then diluted with another glyceride component so as to achieve a composition containing all together 6-14 % by weight of stearic acid, 40-70 % by weight of saturated C12 and C14 fatty acids, and a remainder of other C4 - C22 fatty acids . It is to be understood that this invention is not limited to particular configurations, process steps and materials disclosed herein as such configurations, process steps and materials may vary somewhat. It is also to be understood that the terminology employed herein is used for the purpose of

describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting since the scope of the present invention is limited only by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

It must be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise .

In describing and claiming the present invention the following terminology will be used. The term "interesterification" as used throughout the description and in the claims denotes a process whereby the fatty acids are rearranged towards a random distribution of the fatty acids on the glycerol molecules. Interesterification can be achieved in a number of ways, including the use of enzymes or other catalysts, e.g. alkali metal alcoholates. The longer the interesterification continues the more the distribution of fatty acids approaches a perfect random distribution.

The term "randomised distribution of fatty acids", as used throughout this description and the claims, means a rearrangement of the glyceride mixture using for instance the process interesterification as described above. The randomisation of the fatty acids does not necessarily mean a perfect randomisation of the fatty acids on the glycerol molecules. The term randomisation of fatty acids as used herein also encompasses interesterification during a short period of time so that only a few fatty acids are rearranged. Thus both a slight rearrangement and a moderate rearrangement of fatty acids are encompassed by the term randomised distribution of fatty acids . The glyceride mixture of the invention is especially well suited for dairy applications, and particularly for making non- dairy cream. Thus the invention also refers to a composition for whipping cream, which is characterised in comprising a glyceride mixture as described. The mixtures of the present invention are

therefore very suitable to use as components in whipping cream. Thus there is also provided whipping cream comprising a glyceride mixture according to the present invention.

EXAMPLES

The invention is further described by the following examples. All percentages refer to percent by weight.

Comparative example 1. Hydrogenated palm kernel oil. Palm kernel oil was hydrogenated, resulting in a fat that had a content of stearic acid 16.2 %, oleic acid 0.7 %, lauric acid 47.2 % and myristic acid 15.5 %. The stearic acid is predominantly present in the 2-position of the triglycerides. The total content of trans fatty acids was 4.0 %. This fat was chosen as a comparative example as it is a common type of fat to use when making vegetable alternatives to dairy cream.

Example 2. Interesterified blend of palm kernel stearin, palm stearin, medium-chain triglyceride oil (MCT oil) and the low melting fraction of shea fat.

60 % palm kernel stearin, 25 % palmstearin (iodine value 35) , 5 % MCT oil and 10 % of the low melting fraction of shea fat were interesterified in a standard way (90 °C for 30 minutes at 30-40 mbar, using the catalyst sodium methoxide 0.18 %, followed by addition of 1 % of a 20 % citric acid solution in distilled water and 2 % desiccant, drying for 15 minutes under nitrogen at 30-40 mbar) as to achieve complete randomisation. The resulting blend had a content of stearic acid 5.0 %, oleic acid 16.5 %, lauric acid 33.6 % and myristic acid 13.1 %. The total content of trans fatty acids was less than 0.1 %.

Example 3. Interesterified blend of palm kernel stearin, palm stearin, and a fully hardened soybean oil fraction.

70 % palm kernel stearin, 15 % palmstearin (iodine value 35) and 15 % of a fully hardened high-melting soybean oil fraction were interesterified according to the method described in Example 2. The resulting blend had a content of stearic acid 14.6 %, oleic acid 8.6 %, lauric acid 39.1 % and myristic acid 15.1 %. The total content of trans fatty acids was less than 0.1

Example 4. Interesterified blend of palm kernel stearin, palm stearin, and the high melting fraction of shea fat.

70 % palm kernel stearin, 15 % palmstearin (iodine value

35) and 15 % of the high melting fraction of shea fat were interesterified according to the method described in Example 2.

The resulting blend had a content of stearic acid 10.9 %, oleic acid 13.5 %, lauric acid 39.1 % and myristic acid 15.1 %. The total content of trans fatty acids was less than 0.1 %.

Example 5. Interesterified blend of palm kernel stearin, palm stearin, a fully hardened soybean oil fraction and high oleic sunflower oil.

70 % palm kernel stearin, 15 % palmstearin (iodine value 35), 10 % of a fully hardened high-melting soybean oil fraction and 5 % of high oleic sunflower oil were interesterified according to the method described in Example 2. The resulting blend had a content of stearic acid 10.5 %, oleic acid 13.5 %, lauric acid 39.0 % and myristic acid 15.0 %. The total content of trans fatty acids was less than 0.1 %.

EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS Whipping trials: 0.125 kg of a stabiliser (Hamultech RRH, G. C. Hahn & Co., Germany) was dispersed in 3.475 kg of skimmed milk at 50 °C and allowed to hydrate for 60 minutes. The milk containing the dispersed stabiliser was then heated to 60-70 °C. 1.40 kg of the vegetable fat component, melted and heated to 60-

70 °C, was slowly poured into the milk phase while stirring continuously. The mixture was then homogenised in two steps at 80 °C. The pressure in the two stages were 100 and 50 bar respectively. The emulsion formed was then cooled to below 10 °C and stored at 4-6 °C for 24 hours. The emulsion was then whipped with a Hobart mixer until a whipped product with properties as close to whipped dairy cream as possible was obtained. Typical whipping times were between 2 and 4 minutes. Overrun, freeze- thaw stability and sensory tests using a trained panel was done to reveal differences between the different fat alternatives in the final application. All of the interesterified fat blends from examples 1-5 were used in whipping trials and they were characterised by measuring the overrun and the freeze-thaw stability. The overrun (%) is obtained by dividing the weight difference (g) of 100 ml of the mentioned emulsion before and after whipping with the weight (g) of 100 ml of the same emulsion after whipping and afterwards multiplying the obtained figure by 100. Overrun figures above 150 % indicate good whippability .

The freeze-thaw stability was obtained by filling a 150 ml plastic cup with the whipped emulsion and then placing the cup in a freezer at -20 °C for 6 hours and finally thawing the cup at room temperature (18-20 "C) for 180 minutes. The freeze thaw stability was measured as the lowering (mm) of the product surface in the cup. In this test a lowering of the surface (shrinking) of less than 2 cm can be considered to be good. Sensory tests were carried out in two ways:

A. A first quick test where the melt-off was tested. Three people familiar to this product category compared the melt- off of the products and classified them as good melt-off or bad melt-off.

B. Using a trained panel consisting of 8 people. The descriptors used for whipped cream-type products were firm,

tallowy, thick, rapid melting, fresh/creamy, smeary and granular. The panel put markings on lines representing from 0 % to 100 % of the resp. descriptors. The results were evaluated in the software Fizz for Windows 2.10a, Biosystemes, France. Significant differences in the scoring at 95 % significance levels were noted.

Overrun

All interesterified fat blends from the examples above were used and the results can be seen in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Overrun of different whipped emulsions

The results show that the whipping fats from examples 1, 3, 4 and 5 all can be used to make an emulsion with good whipping properties, i.e. with overruns exceeding 150 %. It was surprising to find that the fat from Example 2 showed such inferior whipping properties. It was concluded that the stearic acid content must be higher than was the case in Example 2 in order to get good whipping properties. Only those whipped products with higher stearic acid content than 5 % gave a good overrun .

Freeze-thaw The interesterified fat blends from Examples 1, 4 and 5 above were used in whipping trials as described above and their stability towards freezing/thawing were determined. The results can be seen in Table 2 below:

Table 2: Freeze-thaw stability of whipped emulsions containing fat from examples 1, 4 and 5

The results show that the stability of the whipped emulsions with fat from Examples 4 and 5 were equal to or better in this test than the whipped emulsion with fat from Example 1. The results can for all examples be considered to be good.

Sensory testing A. In a first quick test the whipped emulsions containing fat from Examples 1, 3, 4 and 5 were tested regarding melt off. The results can be seen in Table 3:

Table 3: Test of melt-off

The results show that an increased content of stearic acid has a negative effect on the melt-off characteristics. The product using the fat from Example 3 was considered not to melt-off completely, leaving a small portion of solid fat in the mouth.

B. Using a trained panel, the whipped products with fat from Examples 1, 4 and 5 were tested for their sensory properties. In this test the properties that were significantly different when using the fats from examples 4 and 5 compared to the fat from example 1 were investigated. The results can be seen in Table 4.

Table 4: Properties significantly different in example products 4 and 5 compared to Example 1

The results show that the interesterified fat blends from Examples 4 and 5 have better sensory properties than the fat from Example 1. This is surprising as the fat from Example 1 is widely used in the dairy industry when making vegetable alternatives to dairy emulsions.