Zero-trans fats designed by enzyme-catalyzed interesterification of rice bran oil and fully hydrogenated rice bran oil

Zero-trans edible fats attractive to be used for shortenings or margarines were designed solely from rice bran oil (RBO). For this purpose, RBO was fully hydrogenated, blended with the original oil at different percentages, and finally, blends were interesterified by an enzyme-catalyzed process. The interesterification process reduced the concentration of trisaturated and triunsaturated triglycerides and increased the concentration of medium saturation degree molecules, thus increasing their compatibility and causing the moderation of the melting point, as compared with blends. Conversely to blends, products showed a high tendency to crystallize under the β’ polymorph, which is the preferred one for products destined for many edible applications. Results demonstrated that the proper combination of different technologies (total hydrogenation, blending and interesterification) is a versatile and useful technology for designing zero-trans fats from RBO, attractive for the confection of shortenings or margarines for different applications depending on the proportion of each component in the starting blend. This strategy offers an attractive alternative for the diversification of RBO utilization, a valuable vegetable oil still underexploited, providing attractive fats useful for structuring different type of foods.

Zero-trans fats by enzymatic interesterification of blends beef tallow / rice bran oil

The aim of this study was to analyze in detail the changes produced by the enzymatic interesterification of BT/RBO blends (beef tallow/rice bran oil) at different proportions, as an alternative for production of trans free fats. It was observed that the increase in the oil content produced a range of the content of saturated fatty acids from 20 to 38% in the blend and a range of polyunsaturated fatty acids from 35 to 18%. In TAG composition, the SUU and SSS type (S: saturated fatty acid; U: unsaturated fatty acid) increased in concentration as a result of interesterification process and this effect was more noticeable when the blend was richer in oil, arriving at 19 and 4% respectively in 50:50 BT/RBO blend. These variations in composition greatly improved the plastic range of BT. The process studied produced new trans free fatty materials with improving suitability as food ingredients. Therefore, promising new materials were developed.