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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Functional Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #319921
Research Project: Improving Quality, Stability, and Functionality of Oils and Bioactive Lipids

Location: Functional Foods Research

Title: Properties of cookies made with natural wax-vegetable oil organogels

Author
item Hwang, Hong-Sik
item Singh, Mukti
item LEE, SUYONG - Sejong University

Submitted to: Journal of Food Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/18/2016
Publication Date: 5/11/2016
Citation: Hwang, H.-S., Singh, M., Lee, S. 2016. Properties of cookies made with natural wax-vegetable oil organogels. Journal of Food Science. 81(5):C1045-C1054.

Interpretive Summary: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared trans fats will no longer be considered “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) in 2013 and recently announced that food companies have to phase out the use of partially hydrogenated oils, the main sources of artificial trans fats in processed foods by 2018. For this reason, food companies are replacing trans fats with tropical oils such as palm oil containing highly saturated fats, which also are known to have adverse health effects. The aim of this study was to find alternatives to artificial trans fats and saturated fats contained in cookies. An organogel is formed by adding a small amount of an organogelator in a vegetable oil, of which properties are very similar to trans and saturated fats. Vegetable oils including olive oil, flaxseed oil and soybean oil can be transformed to organogels with a plant wax such as sunflower wax, rice bran wax, beeswax, and candelilla wax. These vegetable oils are rich in healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. In this study, cookie samples were prepared from organogels of these vegetable oils. Properties of these cookies were found to be very similar to those of cookies made with a commercial margarine indicating a high potential of the organogel as the alternative to unhealthy trans fats and saturated fats.

Technical Abstract: Organogels prepared with a natural wax and a vegetable oil were examined as alternatives to a commercial margarine in cookie. To investigate effects of wax and vegetable oil on properties of cookie dough and cookies, organogels prepared from four different waxes including sunflower wax, rice bran wax, beeswax, and candelilla wax and three vegetable oils including olive oil, flaxseed oil and soybean oil were incorporated in cookie dough. Wax and vegetable oil significantly affected properties of organogel such as firmness and melting behavior shown in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Properties of dough such as hardness and melting behavior observed in the DSC experiment were also affected by wax and vegetable oil. However, hardness, spread factor and fracturability of cookies containing the wax-vegetable oil organogels were not significantly affected by different waxes and vegetable oils. Several cookies made with wax-vegetable oil organogels showed similar properties to cookies made with a commercial margarine.