Application of β-Sitosterol + γ-Oryzanol-Structured Organogel as Migration Barrier in Filled Chocolate Products

Formation, characterization, and application of natural bioactive phytosterol-based oleogels: A review

Oleogels are innovative structured fat systems that can replace detrimental lipids and saturated fats. Among the various gelators used to construct oleogels, phytosterols are regarded as potential oleogelators due to ability to lower blood cholesterol levels and protect patients from cardiovascular illnesses, although little research has been conducted on phytosterols. This article examines the formation, characterization, and application of phytosterol-based oleogels in detail. The oleogelation behaviors of phytosterol-based oleogels are affected by their formulation, which includes phytosterol type, combined oleogelator, proportion, concentration and oil type. These oleogels exhibit potential applications as solid fat substitutes without affecting the texture or sensory properties of food products or as effective delivery vehicles. To encourage the research and implementation of phytosterol-based oleogels, we will ultimately not only highlight problems related to their use in food processing, but also provide a few viewpoints, with the goal of providing fresh insights for advancing trends.

A review of oleogels applications in dairy foods

The characteristics of dairy products, such as texture, color, flavor, and nutritional profile, are significantly influenced by the presence of milk fat. However, saturated fatty acids account for 65% of total milk fat. With increased health awareness and regulatory recommendations, consumer preferences have evolved toward low/no saturated fat food products. Reducing the saturated fat content of dairy products to meet market demands is an urgent yet challenging task, as it may compromise product quality and increase production costs. In this regard, oleogels have emerged as a viable milk fat replacement in dairy foods. This review focuses on recent advances in oleogel systems and explores their potential for incorporation into dairy products as a milk fat substitute. Overall, it can be concluded that oleogel can be a potential alternative to replace milk fat fully or partially in the product matrix to improve nutritional profile by mimicking similar rheological and textural product characteristics as milk fat. Furthermore, the impact of consuming oleogel-based dairy foods on digestibility and gut health is also discussed. A thorough comprehension of the application of oleogels in dairy products will provide an opportunity for the dairy sector to develop applications that will appeal to the changing consumer needs.

Chocolate Ganaches: Formulation, Processing and Stability in View of the New Production Trends

This review aims at the current trends in chocolate ganache production and recipe formulation. Ganache is a blend of chocolate, sugars, dairy, and other ingredients commonly used to fill pralines, pastries, etc. In spite of ganache's popularity in the food industry, a comprehensive review focused on the application of functional substances and ganache processing has not been discussed in the scientific literature. This review addresses the new ways of applying special ingredients, such as vegetable fats and seeds, flavor infusions, oleogels, hemp products, etc., which can be added to the ganache matrix to achieve desirable properties. In particular, the application of sterols and sterol esters as functional substances of oleogels seems to be a very promising method, enhancing the ganache fat profile. The elevated caloric content that is characteristic of ganache can be substantially attenuated through the application of hydrocolloids and/or fruit-based components, thereby offering the potential for caloric reduction without compromising on taste. The various alterations to ganache formulations by the application of natural substances offer a large base for the development of novel ganache variants and relevant food products.

Chocolates, compounds and spreads: A review on the use of oleogels, hydrogels and hybrid gels to reduce saturated fat content

This study is a bibliometric analysis and literature review on the use of oleogels (OGs), hydrogels (HGs) and hybrid gels (HYGs) in chocolate, compounds and spreads with the aim of reducing the saturated fat in these products. The articles were selected by analyzing titles, keywords and abstracts in the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and Google Scholar databases. Supplementary documents were obtained from government sources, including patent registrations. The theoretical and practical aspects were critically analyzed, highlighting the main points of agreement and disagreement between the authors. The results revealed a lack of regulations and official guidelines that widely allow the use of OGs, HGs and HYGs in chocolate confectionery products. The type and characteristics of raw materials affect the properties of products. Replacing cocoa butter (CB) with OGs, HGs or HYGs also affects texture, melting point and behavior, and nutritional aspects. These substitutions can result in products with better sensory acceptance and health benefits, such as reducing saturated fat and promoting cardiovascular health. However, it is important to find the ideal combination and proportions of components to obtain the desired properties in the final products.

Engineering effect of oleogels with different structuring mechanisms on the crystallization behavior of cocoa butter

As promising cocoa butter (CB) alternatives, oleogels have the potential to prevent fat blooms of chocolate. We aimed to explore possible reasons for the bloom resistance of oleogels by investigating the crystallization behavior of CB-oleogel blends, including crystallization kinetics, thermodynamic properties, crystal polymorphism, and oil distribution. Oleogels structured by monoglyceric stearate (MO), β-sitosterol/lecithin (SLO), and ethylcellulose (EO) were selected as representative oleogels with various structuring-mechanisms. Crystallization kinetic results showed that the crystallization dimension of CB-oleogel increased with the oleogel proportion (from one-dimensional to multi-dimensional), confirming that CB crystallization was inhibited. The presence of liquid oil and oleogelators in oleogels may increase the free energy barrier for CB crystallization. The proton mobility of liquid oil in CB-MO was lower because MO was more tightly bound to CB. The crystallization mechanism of the CB-oleogel suggested that the inhibitory effect of oleogels on CB crystallization delayed the polymorphic transition, thereby improving the bloom stability of chocolate.

Synergistic effects of oleogelators in tailoring the properties of oleogels: A review

Conventional solid fats play a crucial role as an ingredient in many processed foods. However, these fats contain a high amount of saturated fats and trans fats. Legislations and dietary recommendations related to these two types of fats set forth as a consequence of evidence showing their deleterious health impact have triggered the attempts to find alternate tailor-made lipids for these solid fats. Oleogels is considered as a novel alternative, which has reduced saturated fat and no trans fat content. In addition to mimicking the distinctive characteristics of solid fats, oleogels can be developed to contain a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids and used to deliver bioactives. Although there has been a dramatic rise in the interest in developing oleogels for food applications over the past decade, none of them has been commercially used in foods so far due to the deficiency in their crystal network structure, particularly in monocomponent gels. Very recently, there is a surge in the interest in using of combination of gelators due to the synergistic effects that aid in overcoming the drawbacks in monocomponent gels. However, currently, there is no comprehensive insight into synergism among oleogelators reported in recent studies. Therefore, a comprehensive intuition into the findings reported on synergism is crucial to fill this gap. The objective of this review is to give a comprehensive insight into synergism among gelators based on recent literature. This paper also identifies the future research propositions towards developing oleogels capable of exactly mimicking the properties of conventional solid fats to bridge the gap between laboratory research and the food industry.

Production, Characterization, Delivery, and Cholesterol-Lowering Mechanism of Phytosterols: A Review

Phytosterols are natural plant-based bioactive compounds that can lower blood cholesterol levels and help prevent cardiovascular diseases. Consequently, they are being utilized in functional foods, supplements, and pharmaceutical products designed to improve human health. This paper summarizes different approaches to isolate, purify, and characterize phytosterols. It also discusses the hypolipidemic mechanisms of phytosterols and their impact on cholesterol transportation. Phytosterols have a low water-solubility, poor chemical stability, and limited bioavailability, which limits their utilization and efficacy in functional foods. Strategies are therefore being developed to overcome these shortcomings. Colloidal delivery systems, such as emulsions, oleogels, liposomes, and nanoparticles, have been shown to be effective at improving the water-dispersibility, stability, and bioavailability of phytosterols. These delivery systems can be used to incorporate phytosterols into a broader range of cholesterol-lowering functional foods and beverages. We also discuses several issues that need to be addressed before these phytosterol delivery systems can find widespread commercial utilization.

Palm Olein Organogelation Using Mixtures of Soy Lecithin and Glyceryl Monostearate

The present work investigated the interaction between soy lecithin (SL), glyceryl monostearate (GMS), and water in structuring palm olein (PO) to create an organogel having similar mechanical properties to commercial spread. Extreme vertices mixture design was used to optimize the composition of PO-based organogel. The resulting model showed a good fit to the predicted data with R² ≥ 0.89. The optimum composition was 8% SL, 22% GMS, 28% water, and 42% PO (w/w) to produce a mean firmness of 1.91 N, spreadability of 15.28 N s⁻¹, and oil binding capacity (OBC) of 83.83%. The OBC of optimized organogel was 10% higher than commercial spread product, and no significant difference was observed in the mechanical properties (p > 0.05). The microstructure, as well as the rheological and thermal properties of the optimized organogel were characterized. Fourier transform infrared analysis indicated that hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions were the key driving forces for organogelation. The mixture of SL and GMS favored the formation of β′ + β form crystals with a predominance of the β′ form. These results have important implications for the development of PO-based organogel as a potential fat replacer in the production of low-fat spread.

Improving the nutritional profile of culinary products: oleogel-based bouillon cubes

Structured fat phases are the basis of many consumer relevant properties of fat-containing foods. To realise a nutritional improvement - less saturated, more unsaturated fatty acids - edible oleogels could be remedy. The feasibility of traditional fat phases structured by oleogel in culinary products has been evaluated in this study. In this contribution the oleogel application in bouillon cubes as model system for culinary products is discussed. Three different gelators (sunflower wax (SFW), a mixture of β-Sitosterol and γ-Oryzanol (SO) and ethylcellulose (EC)), at two concentration levels (5% and 10% (w/w)) each, were evaluated with respect to their physical properties, in the food matrix and application. The application of pure and structured canola oil (CO) was benchmarked against the reference, palm fat (PO). The assessment of the prototypes covered attempts to correlate the physicochemical analyses and sensory data. Organoleptic and analytical studies covered storage stability (up to 6 months) monitoring texture, color and fat oxidation. The results indicate that the substitution of palm fat by oleogel is essentially possible. The characteristics of the bouillon cubes are tuneable by gelator choice and inclusion level. Most importantly, the data show that the anticipated risk of intolerable effects of oxidation during shelf life is limited if antioxidants are used.

Characterization of functional chocolate formulated using oleogels derived from β-sitosterol with γ-oryzanol/lecithin/stearic acid

With an aim to prepare the functional chocolate, corn oil was used as the base oil and β-sitosterol was combined with oryzanol/stearic acid/lecithin to prepare respective oleogels (GO, SO, and LO). Oleogels (12%) were prepared by adding compound oleogelators at different ratios [GO-2:3, SO-1:4, and LO-4:1 (w/w)] in corn oil. The microstructure, interaction, thermodynamic, crystalline, and rheological behavior of formulated oleogels were studied by microscopic observation, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and rotational rheometer, respectively. The results showed that GO had the strongest gel forming ability and the densest gel crystallization network. Moreover, chocolate prepared with GO (cocoa butter and oleogels-1:1) had the similar texture, crystal structure, rheological, and sensory properties to that of dark chocolate. This study provides the possibility for the wider application of oleogel prepared with lower saturated and trans-fatty acids in the chocolate industry.

Heat resistant chocolate development for subtropical and tropical climates: a review

Heat resistant chocolate (HRC) which can retain the desired texture and mouthfeel in tropical and subtropical climatic conditions has become a major research area in the chocolate industry. Liking of the chocolate products keeps on changing with the geographical conditions of the world due to the availability of ingredients from local resources and consumer's taste preferences. The geographical changes also bring about the change in climatic conditions and as such no chocolates have been formulated to withstand the hot tropical or sub-tropical temperature conditions. Textural issues and various storage related problems faced due to meltability of chocolate in different countries has opened up a broad research field of sustainable HRC manufacturing. Over the years, there are broadly three different approaches (fat modification, sugar structure modification and innovative process approach) to develop the HRC and all these scientific approaches have given different scientific insights about improving the heat resistance characteristics and textural stability of chocolate. There is a lack or coordinated fundamental and applied research related to cocoa butter polymorphism, and thermal-textural issues during product development/storage. This review paper is an attempt to describe the different scientific approaches for developing HRC and how they affect the physical/sensory chocolate attributes.

Self-assembled lipids for food applications: A review

Lipids play an important role in human nutrition. Several foodstuffs can be manufactured from the simple, compound and derived lipids. In particular, the use of self-assembled lipids (SLs, e.g. self-assembled L-α-lecithin) has brought great attention for the development of tailored, tuned and targeted colloidal structures loading degradation-sensitive substances with valuable antimicrobial, antioxidant and nutraceutical properties for food applications. For example, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and essential oils can be protected from degradation, thus improving their bioavailability in general terms in consumers. From a nanotechnological point of view, SLs allow the development of advanced and multifaceted architectures, in which each molecule of them are used as building blocks to obtain designed and ordered structures. It is important to note before beginning this review, that simple and compound lipids are the main SLs, while essential fatty acids and derived lipids in general have been considered by many research groups as the bulk loaded substances within several structures from self-assembled carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. However, this review paper is addressed on the analysis of the lipid-lipid self-assembly. Lipids can be self-assembled into various structures (micelles, vesicular systems, lyotropic liquid crystals, oleogels and films) to be used in different food applications: coatings, controlled and sustained release materials, emulsions, functional foods, etc. SLs can be obtained via non-covalent chemical interactions, primarily by hydrogen, hydrophilic and ionic bonding, which are influenced by the conditions of ionic strength, pH, temperature, among others. This manuscript aims to give an analysis of the specific state-of-the-art of SLs for food applications, based primarily on the literature reported in the past five years.

Oleogels in Food: A Review of Current and Potential Applications

Legislative limitations of the use of trans and saturated fatty acids, the rising concerns among consumers about the negative effects of some fats on human health, and environmental and health considerations regarding the increased use of palm fat in food and biodiesel production drove to innovations in reformulating fat-containing food products. Oleogelation is one of the most in-trend methods for reducing or replacing the unhealthy and controversial fats in food products. Different edible oleogels are being formulated by various techniques and used in spreads, bakeries, confectioneries, and dairy and meat products. This review exclusively focuses on up-to-date applications of oleogels in food and mechanisms of gelation, and discusses the properties of new products. Research has produced acceptable reformulated food products with similar technological and rheological properties as the reference products or even products with improved techno-functionality; however, there is still a high need to improve oleogelation methods, as well as the technological process of oleogel-based foods products. Despite other strategies that aim to reduce or replace the occurrence of trans and saturated fats in food, oleogelation presents a great potential for industrial application in the future due to nutritional and environmental considerations.

Sterol-based oleogels' characterization envisioning food applications

BACKGROUND

Phytosterols, in particular a mixture of pure γ-oryzanol and β-sitosterol, develop a tubular system that is able to structure oil. In this study, different concentrations of a combination of γ-oryzanol and a commercial phytosterol mixture, Vitaesterol®, were used for the development of edible oil oleogels.

RESULTS

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to characterize at nano and molecular scale the aforementioned oleogels and confirm the formation of sterols-based hollow tubule structures. Increased hardness was observed with the increase of gelator content used in oleogel manufacturing. The produced oleogels showed promising features such as tailored mechanical strength and low opacity, which are important features when considering their incorporation into food products.

CONCLUSION

Despite differences in gel strength, oleogels exhibited textural characteristics that make these structures suitable for incorporation in food products. The oil migration profile associated with these oleogels can provide a solution for the controlled release of lipophilic compounds as well as for the retention of oil in cooked food products. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.