Effect of emulsifiers on shortenings

Abstract

The quality of a shortening depends on its physicochemical characteristics. These include amount of solids, texture and melting behavior, among others. The type of shortening, the processing and storage conditions strongly affect these characteristics. Different strategies can be used to formulate shortenings with low trans fatty acids content while maintaining their physicochemical characteristics. This article describes some of these strategies and aims to provide information about the different variables that need to be controlled to obtain a high quality shortening.

Analysis of the reduction of trans-fatty-acid levels in the foods of Argentina

“…The rationale in all of these approaches is to replace the unhealthy lipidic material with a healthier substitute that would also confer on the final product with similar favourable organoleptic characteristics and shelf life. Mixtures of bovine-milk fat fractions and sunflower oil could be used for bakery products; whereas, in the example of the high-stearic, high-oleic sunflower-oil fractions, the application would depend on the melting point and content of the solid fat of the stearin obtained (Martini and Herrera 2008;Rinc on Cardona et al 2013). In this regard, two classes of stearins are possible: one, referred to as soft stearin that could be used in bakery products and pastry coatings; the other, called hard stearin that could substitute for cocoa butter in chocolate preparations (Rinc on Cardona et al 2014;Herrera et al 2015).…”