Baking & Snack - June 2016 - 58

FATS, OILS, SHORTENINGS

Shortening 'mix tape'
Recently, a new phrase entered the language of fats and
oils: enzymatic interesterification. Although the name takes
up a lot of syllables, the process is a lot like making a music
mix tape. It separates the fatty acid components from different triglycerides, mixes them up and reassembles them.
"In a blend of oils, each oil molecule retains its own characteristics, dramatically limiting the functional range of a
blend," said Richard Galloway, consultant, Qualisoy. "In enzymatic interesterification (EIE), optimization occurs at the
molecular level, significantly expanding its functional range
and enabling it to more closely approach partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) in functionality, stability and so forth."
When applied to soybean oil, EIE results in a functional
shortening that does not contribute trans fats.
"The soybean industry has invested millions in perfecting the EIE process and can offer the baker or snack food
manufacturer the closest thing to the PHO shortenings to
which he or she has been accustomed," Mr. Galloway said.
A donut frying test done by Qualisoy with EIE high-oleic
soybean oil produced donuts similar in texture, interior
grain, spread and height, and donut hole star shape and
size to those fried with PHO shortening. Additional testing
focuses on cakes, cookies and icings.
Interesterification can also be done chemically, but
"the benefit to enzymatic is that the process typically
yields shortenings of higher quality," said Roger Daniels,
vice-president, research and innovation, Stratas Foods
LLC. They have a wider array of fatty acid combinations
(triglycerides) that move these shortenings closer to the
functionality of PHOs.

quest to build up solids. Nowadays, many solutions consider combining low-saturate liquid oils with trans-free
solid stocks that give the plasticizing properties required."
Major differences exist in composition and performance of shortenings, depending on how they are to be
used. Frying and foodservice applications typically employ liquid shortenings, and bakery products benefit from
textured shortenings, often called plastic shortenings.
For frying, the key factor is the life of the oil. "To this
end, the starting fatty acid composition is the critical attribute," explained Roger Daniels, vice-president, research
and innovation, Stratas Foods LLC. "Oils elevated in oleic
fatty acid levels typically have enhanced frying functionality due to their ability to stave off the impacts of autooxidation and thermal degradation reactions."
Baking takes advantage of the shortening functions
involved with product tenderness or structure. "This
is principally accomplished during the mixing process
when the shortening is combined with flour, sugar, water
and other components," Mr. Daniels said.
The shortening encases the flour proteins, limiting
their ability to link up, thereby "shortening" the full development of the protein network. "By finding the optimum
balance of shortening composition, shortening quantity
in the bakery recipe and mixing and baking times, the
end user is able to achieve the desired bakery products,"
Mr. Daniels explained.
The shortening requirements of some products will
be more difficult to manage, according to Ms. Morehart.
"The tougher applications of frostings, puff pastry,
Danish, pie crusts and some cookies need to have solid
fat to aid in the appropriate structure of those products,"
she said. "Non-PHO products tend to need more specialization for many of these more challenging applications.
They also typically require changes to manufacturing parameters, ingredients, sequence of ingredient addition or
packaging materials."

Reshuffling the deck
With hydrogenation out of the picture, the characteristics of base oils take on more importance. "Among
other factors, the choice of base oils can impact flavors,
texture, color and stability of end products and can be
affected by processing parameters such as temperature
and so forth," explained Tara Froemming, marketing
coordinator, Healthy Food Ingredients.
Performance attributes of base oils such as smoke
point, melting point and firmness provide building
blocks, observed Brian Armstrong, senior director of innovation and R&D, Bunge North America.
Above: By blending base oils with a source of solid fats, shortenings can be created
to give cookies the creaming characteristics required for best batter performance.
Stratas

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