Organogels of vegetable oil with plant wax – trans/saturated fat replacements

Authors: Hwang, Hong-Sik

Submitted to: Inform
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/15/2015
Publication Date: 1/10/2016
Citation: Hwang, H.-S. 2016. Organogels of vegetable oil with plant wax – trans/saturated fat replacements. Inform. 27:708-711.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: This featured article reviews recent advances on the development of trans fat-free, low saturated fat food products from organogels formed by a plant wax in a vegetable oil. Plant waxes are of great interest in this research area because they are obtained as by-products during the oil refining process of vegetable oils such as rice bran oil and sunflower oil and they show strong gelation ability towards edible oils. A small amount of a plant wax was added into soybean oil to form an organogel, which was then incorporated in a margarine or spread product. Studies showed that margarines prepared with 2-3% sunflower wax in soybean oil could show a similar firmness to that of a commercial spread. Sunflower wax organogels with twelve other healthy vegetable oils also could form relatively firm margarines. In this type of food products, a large amount of solid fat containing trans-fats or/and high contents of saturated fats is replaced with a small amount of plant wax and therefore, the major ingredient in the product is a healthy vegetable oil. In addition to healthy spreads and margarines, other new healthy food products including ice cream, cookie, meat, bread, and chocolate have been prepared from an organogel.