Fat composition and fat blend

Abstract

A fat composition comprises: greater than 75% by weight palmitic acid and stearic acids; from 1 to 25% by weight oleic acid; and greater than 20% by weight of combined P.sub.2St and PSt.sub.2 triglycerides, wherein P is palmitic acid and St is stearic acid; wherein the fat composition has a weight ratio of P.sub.2St:PPP triglycerides of greater than 0.5.

Claims

1. A fat composition which is the stearin fraction of a product obtained by interesterifying a mixture of palm oil stearin and shea olein and which comprises: greater than 75% by weight palmitic acid and stearic acids; from 1 to 25% by weight oleic acid; and greater than 20% by weight of combined P2St and PSt.sub.2 triglycerides, wherein P is palmitic acid and St is stearic acid; wherein the fat composition has a weight ratio of P.sub.2St:PPP triglycerides of greater than 0.5.

2. The fat composition as claimed in claim 1 comprising greater than 55% by weight in total of the triglycerides PPP, P.sub.2St and PSt2, wherein P is palmitic acid and St is stearic acid.

3. The fat composition as claimed in claim 1 comprising from 10% to 60% by weight of stearic acid.

4. The fat composition as claimed in claim 1 comprising from 5 to 20% by weight of oleic acid.

5. A fat blend comprising from 0.5 to 10% by weight of the fat composition of claim 1 and from 90 to 99.5% by weight of one or more other fats.

6. The fat blend as claimed in claim 5 comprising at least 80% by weight of a lauric fat component.

7. The fat blend as claimed in claim 6, wherein the lauric fat component is selected from the group consisting of coconut oil, palm kernel oil, fractions of coconut oil, fractions of palm kernel oil, and mixtures thereof.

8. The fat blend as claimed in claim 5 comprising at least 30% by weight of one or more non-hydrogenated palm fractions.

9. The fat blend as claimed in claim 8, wherein the non-hydrogenated palm fraction is a palm olein.

10. A confectionery product comprising: at least 20% by weight of the fat blend according to claim 5; and at least 30% by weight sugar.

11. The confectionery product as claimed in claim 10 comprising at least 5% of milk powder, vegetable milk powder or a mixture thereof.

12. The confectionery product as claimed in claim 10 which is a confectionery filling comprising at least 5% of a nut based material.

13. A process for making the fat composition of claim 1 comprising the following steps: (a) providing a palm oil stearin having an iodine value (IV) of from 10 to 40; (b) interesterifying the palm oil stearin of step (a) with shea olein; and (c) fractionating the interesterified product of step (b) to produce a stearin fraction at a yield based on the interesterified product of step (b) of from 8 to 25% by weight.

14. A method of promoting, enhancing or accelerating the crystallization of fat or fat blends in confectionery or bakery applications, comprising adding the fat composition according to claim 1.

Description

EXAMPLES

Example 1

(1) About 1200 gram of a blend of 40% by weight palm stearin with an iodine value of 14 and 60% by weight shea olein was chemically interesterified using sodium methoxide. The interesterified blend was dry fractionated at 40 C. The oil was first heated to 70 C. and then cooled down to 35 C. to 45 C. as follows:

(2) from 70 C. down to 40 C. to 47 C. in 3 to 7 hours,

(3) hold for 2 to 8 hours at 40 C. to 47 C. and

(4) cooled further to 35 C. to 45 C. in 5 to 10 hours and hold at this temperature for 5 to 10 hours.

(5) The crystals formed were separated by means of filter pressing. The slurry was pressed using the following program:

(6) increase pressure from 0-24 bar in 60 min and squeeze 24 bar for 30 min.

(7) In this way, about 19% stearin yield was obtained. The analytical results are shown in Table 1 (Product 1).

(8) This stearin fraction is suitable for replacing hydrogenated palm oil 60 (hPO60) as crystallization/structuring agent.

Example 2

(9) About 890 gram of a blend of 80% by weight palm stearin with an iodine value of 34 and 20% by weight shea olein was chemically interesterified using sodium methoxide. The interesterified blend was dry fractionated at 37 C. to 45 C. The oil was first heated to 70 C. and then cooled down to 37 C. to 45 C. as follows:

(10) from 70 C. down to 48 C. to 52 C. in 1 to 5 hours,

(11) hold for 2 to 6 hours at 48 C. to 52 C. and

(12) cooled further to 37 C. to 45 C. in 5 to 10 hours and hold at this temperature for 5 to 10 hours.

(13) The crystals formed were separated by means of filter pressing. The slurry was pressed using the following program: increase pressure from 0-24 bar in 60 min and squeeze 24 bar for 30 min.

(14) In this way, about 20% stearin yield was obtained. The analytical results are shown in Table 1 (Product 2).

(15) This stearin fraction is suitable for replacing hydrogenated palm oil 60 (hPO60) as crystallization/structuring agent.

Example 3

(16) About 1200 gram of a mixture of 50% by weight palm oil mid fraction (PMF IV34) and 50% by weight stearic acid was interesterified, which reaction was catalyzed by a 1,3-specific lipase derived from Rhizopus oryzae. The interesterified PMF (in (PMFIV34)) was solvent fractionated using acetone as solvent at 20 C. to 25 C. The solvent/oil mixture was cooled down to 20 C. to 25 C., while stirring. Formed crystals were filtered off and the solvent was evaporated by means of distillation. The top stearin fraction obtained (about 10% yield) could be used as an alternative for hydrogenated palm oil (hPO 60). The analytical results are shown in Table 1 (Product 3).

(17) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Analytical results of different structuring agents as prepared in Examples 1-3. Comparative Product Product Product example 1 of 2 of 3 of PO60 Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 IVFAME HIRES 0.3 13.7 15.7 9.9 FAME analysis SAFA 99.7 86 84.3 88.9 MUFA 0.3 12.1 13.1 10.8 PUFA 0 1.9 2.5 0.4 C12:0 0.4 0.3 0.2 0 C14:0 1.4 0.7 1 0.4 C16:0 58.8 52.1 68.5 35.8 C17:0 0.2 0.2 0 0.1 C18:0 38.3 31.2 13.8 51 C18:1 0.3 12 12.9 10.8 C18:2 0 1.8 2.5 0.3 C18:3 0 0.1 0.1 0 Total Trans 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 C20:0 0.5 1.3 0.7 1.2 C22:0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 C22:1 0 0 0 0 C24:0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Triglyceride composition MPP 2 1 1.9 0.3 MOM 0 0.1 0.1 0 PPP 27 20 42 7.2 MOP 0 0.3 0.7 0 MLP 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.1 PPSt 39.8 30.3 22.3 26.3 POP 0 5.8 11.1 2 PLP 0.1 0.9 2 0.1 PStSt 24.2 16.7 4.6 27.7 POSt 0 6.9 3.8 10.6 POO 0.1 3 4.5 0.1 PLSt 0 0.8 0.4 0.2 PLO 0 1 1.6 0.1 PLL 0 0.1 0.2 0 StStSt 5.4 3.8 0.6 6.1 StOSt 0.6 3.3 1.2 17.5 StOO 0 1.6 0.7 0.1 StLSt 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.4 OOO 0 0.9 0.7 0 StLO 0 0.4 0.2 0 OLO 0 0.4 0.4 0 StLL 0 0 0.1 0 OLL 0 0.5 0.2 0 AStSt 0.3 0 0 0.3 AOSt 0 0.2 0 0.5 AOO 0 0.1 0 0 ALSt 0 0 0 0 Others 0.2 1.2 0.5 0.1 SUMSOS 0.6 16 16.1 30.1 Solid fat content in % US-N10 99 93 95 99 US-N20 98 92 92 98 US-N25 98 89 89 89 US-N30 98 86 85 81 US-N35 98 81 79 83 US-N40 97 74 71 75 MDP (Mettler Drop 61.5 57.3 56.5 60.5 Point)

(18) US-Nx refers to solid fat content determined by NMR on unstabilised fat at x C.

(19) MDP is the Mettler dropping point

(20) IVFAME refers to calculated iodine value

(21) Cx:y refers to a fatty acid having x carbon atoms and y double bonds; levels determined by GC-FAME

(22) M, O, P, St, L and A refer to myristic, oleic, palmitic, stearic, linoleic and arachidic acids, respectively

(23) Triglyceride composition MPP, etc, was determined by GC (ISO 23275) and includes triglycerides having the same fatty acids in different positions e.g., MPP includes MPP and PMP

(24) SUMSOS refers to total SOS (S is stearic or palmitic acid and O is oleic acid)

Example 4

(25) The structuring property was determined by measuring the hardness. Palm olein with iodine value of 64 was used as liquid oil. To 120 gram POfIV64 was added 3% (wt) of the Products 1-3. The oil blend was heated to 60 C. followed by cooling down to room temperature. The cooled samples were stored for 3 days at 10 C. The samples were measured using a Brookfield texture analyzer. Samples were taken from the refrigerator (10 C.) and penetrated once with a 12.7 mm diameter plastic cylindrical probe. The maximal force (measured in compression) was recorded and mentioned as maximal hardness. The speed and distance of penetration were set to 2.0 mm/s and 10 mm, respectively. The results are shown in Table 2.

(26) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Hardness measured at room temperature of different blends stored at 10 C. for 3 days. Comparative Product example Product 1 of Product 2 of 3 of PO60 Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Hardness (g) 194.7 332.6 223.9 234.3 (POfIV64 + 3%) ratio P.sub.2St/PPP 1.47 1.52 0.53 3.65 P.sub.2St + PSt.sub.2 64 47 26.9 54