Avances recientes en la formulación de grasas a base de plantas como sustituto de la manteca de cerdo

Lard is one of the main animal fats used as shortening and frying medium. Religious prohibitions and negative health perceptions regarding animal fats have caused concerns about the consumption of lard among communities living around the world. Various research efforts have been made in the past to formulate plant-based fats and shortenings as substitutes for the exclusion of lard from food. This would eventually help countries to regularize food formulations according to their religious compliance. As the existence of a single plant fat as substitute for lard has not been discovered from nature, researchers attempted to study the possibility of mixing native fats and oils such as enkabang fat, canola oil, guava oil, palm oil, palm stearin, soybean oil and cocoa butter as raw materials. The compatibility of the formulated plant-based fat substitute for lard was assessed in terms of chemical composition and thermo-physical properties. The formulated plant-based shortenings and lard shortening were simply plastic fats based on their consistency value and existence of β’ and β-form polymorphs of which the β’ -form was dominant. The functional properties of formulated plant-based shortenings and lard were also compared in the formulation of cookies. Although a substantial amount of work has been done over the past decade, there was hardly any discussion on the pros and cons of the approaches used for raw material selection and the criteria adopted in the assessment of the formulated products. Hence, this review intended to bring an update of the progress of studies with regard to these two aspects.La manteca de cerdo es una de las grasas animales que se utiliza principalmente como manteca y como medio para freír. Las prohibiciones religiosas y las percepciones de salud negativas con respecto a las grasas animales han causado preocupación sobre el consumo de manteca de cerdo entre las comunidades que viven en todo el mundo. Se han realizado varios esfuerzos de investigación, en el pasado, para formular grasas y mantecas vegetales como sustitutos de la exclusión de la manteca de cerdo de los alimentos. Esto eventualmente ayudaría a los países a regularizar las formulaciones de alimentos de acuerdo con el cumplimiento religioso. Como todavía no se ha descubierto en la naturaleza la existencia de una sola grasa vegetal como sustituto de la manteca de cerdo, los investigadores intentaron estudiar esta posibilidad mezclando grasas y aceites nativos como grasa enkabang, aceite de canola, aceite de guayaba, aceite de palma, estearina de palma, aceite de soja y manteca de cacao como materia prima. Se evaluó la compatibilidad del sucedáneo de grasas vegetales formuladas con la manteca de cerdo en términos de composición química y propiedades termofísicas. Las mantecas vegetales formuladas y la manteca vegetal eran simplemente grasas plásticas basadas en su valor de consistencia y la existencia de polimorfos de las formas β ‘y β de las cuales la forma β’ era dominante. También se compararon las propiedades funcionales de las mantecas vegetales formuladas y la manteca de cerdo en la formulación de galletas. Aunque se ha realizado una cantidad considerable de trabajo durante la última década, apenas hubo discusión sobre los pros y los contras de los enfoques utilizados para la selección de materias primas y los criterios adoptados en la evaluación de los productos formulados. Por tanto, esta revisión pretendía aportar una actualización del avance de los estudios en relación con estos dos aspectos

Effect of varietal differences on composition and thermal characteristics of avocado oil.

A study was carried out to compare the characteristics of oils from three Malaysian avocado (Persea americana) cultivars with those of the oil from the Australian Hass avocado variety. Oil samples extracted from matured-avocado fruits were assessed for basic physico-chemical parameters, fatty acid and triacylglycerol (TAG) compositions, and melting and solidification characteristics. In comparison to Hass variety, the oil contents of the local avocado cultivars were significantly lower and found to be mostly in semisolid form. As a common feature, oils of both local cultivars and Hass variety are found to have oleic acid as the most dominant fatty acid. However, there are differences between them with regard to the proportional distributions of palmitic and linoleic acids. While the major TAG of local avocado cultivars were POO, followed by POL, OOO and PPO, the dominant TAG of Hass variety were OOO, followed by PPO, OOL and POL. Due to these differences in fatty acid and TAG distributional patterns, the oils of local avocado cultivars are found to possess iodine value, slip melting point, melting and solidification characteristics, which are completely different from those of the imported Hass avocado variety

Differentiation of fractionated components of lard from other animal fats using different analytical techniques

A study was conducted to differentiate fractionated components of lard namely lard olein (LO) and lard stearin (LS) from other common animal fats. Lard fractions and animal fats were analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), elemental analyzer–isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Overlay of FTIR spectra did not help to pinpoint any characteristic feature to distinguish either LO or LS from other animal fats, but overlay of DSC cooling curves helped a successful discrimination. The determination of δ13C from EA-IRMS showed that the values corresponding to the fractionated components of lard were significantly (p<0.05) different from those of the other common animal fats. GC-MS analysis showed that direct comparison of overall fatty acid data was not able to discriminate LO and LS from other animal fats, but the application of principal component analysis (PCA) to fatty acid data helped a successful discrimination

Effect of fractional crystallization on composition and thermal properties of engkabang (shorea macrophylla) seed fat and cocoa butter

Fractional crystallization behaviors of cocoa butter (CB) and enkabang fat (EF) in acetone were investigated. Melted samples of CB and EF were mixed separately with acetone in 1:2 (w/v) ratio and partitioned into solid and liquid fractions under controlled temperature conditions. The isolated fractions were compared to their respective native samples with respect to various physico-chemical parameters using standard chemical methods as well as instrumental techniques such as gas liquid chromatography (GLC), reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). According to results, partitioning of either CB or EF under solvent assisted crystallization condition yielded a major solid and a minor liquid fraction. The solid and liquid fractions of both fats were found to display many similarities, but few differences with regard to their composition and thermal properties. While the solid fractions may be useful as a hard stock in hard margarine and cosmetic product formulation, liquid fraction would be useful as an ingredient for food applications

Composition and thermal analysis of lard stearin and lard olein

Lard being an edible fat could be used in different forms in food systems. In this study, composition and thermal analysis of lard stearin (LS) and lard olein (LO) were undertaken to determine some common parameters which would enable their detection in food. A sample of native lard was partitioned into LS and LO using acetone as solvent and the fractions were compared to the original sample with respect to basic physico-chemical parameters, fatty acid and triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, and thermal characteristics. Although LS and LO displayed wider variations in basic physico-chemical parameters, thermal properties and solidification behavior, they do possess some common characteristic features with regard to composition. In spite of the proportional differences in the major fatty acids, both LS and LO are found to possess extremely high amount of palmitic (C16:0) acid at the Sn-2 positions of their TAG molecules. Similar to native lard, both LS and LO contained approximately equal proportions of TAG molecules namely, linoleoyl-palmitoyl-oleoyl glycerol (LPO) and dioleoyl-palmitoyl glycerol (OPO). Hence, the calculated LPO/OPO ratio for LS and LO are comparably similar to that of native lard