CRYSTALLIZATION OF SUNFLOWER SOFT STEARIN/BUTTER OIL BLENDS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN SANDWICH COOKIE FILLINGS

DI MARCO ANDREA; PAN LUCAS; ANÓN MARÍA CRISTINA

Rosario

Congreso; World Congress on Oils & Fats and 31st ISF Lectureship Series; 2015

ASAGA - ISF

In recent years, it was observed an increasing effort from food industry to find healthier fats alternatives with the aim to replace lauric and hydrogenated fats. In this context, Advanta Seeds has developed high-stearic-high-oleic sunflower lines, by using traditional breeding.Some researchers have carried out fractionation trials on this oil to concentrate the high-melting triglycerides (mainly StOSt) (Bootello, 2011; Salas, 2011). In this way, it can be obtained fats with a higher content of disaturated triglycerides from sunflower, a crop that is grown in temperate climates.Stearins obtained from solvent and dry fractionation are commonly known as hard and soft stearins respectively, due to the difference in the disaturated triglycerides (SUS) content. Hard stearins with a SUS content between 65 and 80 % show melting curves similar to cocoa butter (Salas, 2011), while soft stearins could be more appropriated to produce different fat products like spreads (Bootello, 2011).In this context, we considered it appropriate to study the crystallization of sunflower soft stearin/butter oil blends to evaluate their application in sandwich cookie fillings.The results found in the crystallization study showed an incompatibility between stearin and butter oil: isosolids diagrams obtained by NMR showed eutectic formation, DSC melting thermograms displayed a minimum enthalpy on the 50/50 blend and its crystallization kinetic showed a one-step mechanism. All samples displayed wide melting ranges determined by DSC.With the aim to analyze a possible application of these new fats, it was chosen a cookie filling as a possible food matrix. Solid fat content curves of beef tallow extracted from these fillings showed SFC values higher than soft stearin and its blends. Nevertheless, the firmness of fillings made with stearin 100% and the blend stearin/butter oil 75/25 was higher than the commercial filling. The adhesiveness, cohesiveness and elasticity of commercial and potential fillings were equivalents.According to the results obtained, in spite of the fact that soft stearin and butter oil are incompatible, it was possible to make sandwich cookie fillings firmer than the commercial ones, which indicates that not only the fat influences the final consistency of the fillings, but also the formulation used and the processing conditions.