Composition

Abstract

The invention provides a composition comprising a glyceride composition comprising at least about 15% by weight of a glyceride comprising a palmitoyl group at the 2-position, wherein at least 30% by weight of the total palmitic acid content of the composition is present at the 2-position in a glyceride, wherein the composition comprises one or more tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate in a total amount of up to about 1% by weight, and wherein the composition does not comprise added lecithin.

Claims

1. A glyceride composition comprising at least about 15% by weight of a glyceride comprising a palmitoyl group at the 2-position, wherein at least 30% by weight of the total palmitic acid content of the composition is present at the 2-position in a glyceride, wherein the composition comprises one or more tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate in a total amount of up to about 1% by weight, and wherein the composition does not comprise added lecithin.

2. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the glyceride is 1,3-dioleoyl-2-palmitoylglycerol (OPO).

3. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the tocopherols are selected from the group consisting of alpha-tocopherol, beta-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, and mixtures thereof.

4. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the composition does not comprise phospholipids.

5. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the composition does not comprise any further antioxidant.

6. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the composition does not comprise lecithin.

7. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the composition comprises the one or more tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate in a weight ratio of 1:5 to 20:1.

8. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the Rancimat induction period (RIP) of the composition is greater than 22 hours.

9. An infant formula comprising a composition according to claim 1, and wherein the formula does not comprise lecithin.

10. An infant formula according to claim 9, further comprising one or more additional components selected from the group consisting of, milk fat, whey protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and mixtures thereof.

11. An infant formula according to claim 10, wherein the milk fat is derived from cows' milk.

12. An infant formula according to claim 9, wherein the composition is more stable against oxidation compared to the same composition additionally containing lecithin.

13. A process for preparing a composition according to claim 1, which comprises combining the glyceride with the one or more tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate.

14. A method to improve the stability of a glyceride composition comprising a glyceride having a palmitoyl group at the 2-position, comprising adding a mixture comprising one or more tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate, wherein at least 30% by weight of the total palmitic acid content of the composition is present at the 2-position in a glyceride, wherein the composition and the mixture do not comprise added lecithin, and, optionally, the mixture is present in the composition in an amount of up to about 1% by weight.

15. A mixture comprising one or more tocopherols, a vegetable oil and ascorbyl palmitate, and wherein the mixture does not comprise lecithin.

16. A mixture according to claim 15, wherein the tocopherols are selected from the group consisting of alpha-tocopherol, beta-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, and mixtures thereof.

17. A composition according to claim 5, wherein the antioxidant is selected from the group consisting of a phospholipid, citric acid, a citrate, a carotenoid, a rosemary extract and rosmarinic acid.

18. A composition according to claim 7, wherein the weight ratio is 2:1 to 1.5:1.

19. A composition according to claim 8, wherein the Rancimat induction period of the composition is about 30 hours.

20. An infant formula according to claim 12, wherein the composition is more stable against oxidation compared to the same composition additionally containing up to about 500 ppm of lecithin.

Description

EXAMPLES

Example 1

[0114] A composition is prepared comprising as a fat phase Betapol®55 (Loders Croklaan BV, Wormerveer, The Netherlands), being a fat composition containing greater than 15% of the triglyceride OPO and having around 55% by weight of the palmitic acid content of the composition present as palmitoyl groups bonded at the 2-position, and an antioxidant mixture comprising tocopherols (Tocoblend L50 IP; 50% natural mixed tocopherol plus 50% sunflower oil), ascorbyl palmitate and/or lecithin (Ronoxan A) in varying quantities up to a combined amount of between 100 to 600 ppm. The Rancimat induction period (RIP) of the fat compositions was measured using an AOCS Cd 12b-92 method at 120° C. As controls, the RIP was measured for fat compositions in the absence of antioxidants, with the addition of tocopherols only at 100 ppm and the addition of tocopherols, ascorbyl palmitate and lecithin in amounts of 300 ppm, 100 ppm and 100 ppm, respectively. Inventive composition Examples 4 to 7 were free of added lecithin and contained ascorbyl palmitate in a constant amount of 100 ppm whilst varying the content of tocopherols from 100 ppm to 500 ppm.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Tocopherol Ascorbyl mixture content palmitate Lecithin content (ppm) content (ppm) (ppm) RIP (h) Example 1 — — — 7.4 Example 2 100 — — 14.5 Example 3 300 100 500 22 Example 4 100 100 — 28.2 Example 5 300 100 — 32.4 Example 6 400 100 — 31.1 Example 7 500 100 — 30.8

[0115] In the above table, RIP refers to the Rancimat induction period of the fats. Ronoxan A comprising 25% by weight ascorbyl palmitate, 5% by weight of dl-α tocopherol and 70 by weight lecithin was used as the source of lecithin.

Results:

[0116] Without the addition of antioxidants, the RIP of the composition was 7.4 hours. Upon the addition of 100 ppm of tocopherols, the RIP was doubled to 14.5 hours. Control example 3 contained a mixture of all three antioxidants and gave an extended RIP, compared to the other controls, of 22 hours.

[0117] Inventive Examples 4 to 7 contained only tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate as antioxidants. All inventive examples exhibited extended RIPs of greater than about 28 hours. Specifically, inventive Example 5 contained tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate in amounts identical to control Example 3, which additionally included 500 ppm of a lecithin containing composition, and, surprisingly, the RIP of the composition in inventive Example 5 was 10 hours longer than control Example 3, totalling 32.4 hours.

[0118] It is surprising that the oxidative stability of the composition can be increased by removing lecithin since this is a known antioxidant.