Baking & Snack - June 2018 - 60

PHOS

By blending different kinds of oils and hard fractions,
formulators can create shortenings that meet bakers' needs.
Stratas Foods' Sweetex Golden Flex cake and icing shortenings use high-oleic soybean oil to create a
shortening that cremes faster and takes on water in the
mixing bowl faster. It also is plastic at room temperature without drastic responses to major temperature
swings. "If this gets cold, it gets firm but not brittle. If
it gets warm, it's not soup," said Mitch Riavez, certified
master baker and bakery sales manager, Stratas Foods, at
Qualisoy's Joy of Soy Tour, in Savannah, GA.
Bunge Loders Croklaan's high-oleic options, including soybean and non-GMO sunflower oils, offer shelf
stability that is similar to PHOs. Its high-performance
shortenings made with high-oleic soybean oil give more
challenging applications such as donuts and icings improved stability and functionality.
Currently high-oleic oils and shortenings derived
from them can be pricier than other alternatives. Supply
of these crops just isn't as pervasive as commodity crops.
However, that is changing and may have a long-term
effect on price.

Molecular rearranging
Enzymatic interesterification offers some exciting opportunities in PHO-free shortenings. "Enzymatically
interesterified shortening was really not fully perfected
when the trans-fat labeling was enacted and was just being improved when FDA took their action against PHOs
in 2014-15, so it's fairly new," Mr. Galloway said. "It's
very exacting now."
This process rearranges the fatty acids of triglycerides
to change the fat's attributes, such as melting point and
crystallization. By blending two oils, introducing an enzyme and then heating and cooling the blend, formulators can create a shortening with similar functionality
to PHOs, namely a wider range of stability, without any
trans fat.
As Mr. Tiffany explained, high-oleic soybean oil and
fully hydrogenated soybean oil are blended together
and interesterified with the use of enzymes. This creates a soy-based shortening that is non-PHO but delivers the melting and oxidative characteristics necessary
to serve a wider range of bakery applications. "With
this development, some of the functionality lost by
moving away from PHOs is regained, thus paving the
way for the next generation of soybean oil based nonPHO solutions," he said.
Stratas Foods' Flex processing approach creates a wide
range of functionality. The company has applied it to
several shortenings and margarines in its portfolio, in-

60 Baking & Snack June 2018 / www.bakingandsnack.com

cluding those based in palm, interesterified soy and interesterified high-oleic soy.
The plasticity and texture of interesterified higholeic soybean shortening can be beneficial for bakery
applications that have found the jump to non-PHO
shortenings challenging, specifically, puff pastries
and buttercream icing, according to Mr. Galloway.
"Applications like puff pastries need those layers to
be smooth, not bumpy and rough, and interesterified
high-oleic soybean shortening gives really good layering in puff pastry products," he said. "Buttercream icing and other products that need a smooth consistency,
yet pliable workability, can also benefit."

Mixed to perfection
By blending different kinds of oils and hard fractions,
formulators can create shortenings that meet bakers'
needs. This technique allows suppliers to work around
the limitations of fats and oils to create something that
delivers the stability and functionality of PHOs.
Solids are the key for functionality. "In the past,
mostly tropical or fully hydrogenated fats were used
in the quest to build solids," Mr. Bohm said. Today, he
continued, formulators are turning to liquid oils with
lower saturate content combined with trans-free solids
to achieve the plasticity bakers need.
"By taking a specific hard stock and adding a liquid
oil component to it at different ratios, and also considering the different fractions that we can get from palm
to affect the solid content, we can develop a very strong,
unique laminated fat that mirrors its trans fat-containing counterpart," he explained.
The key to this technique is getting the ratio of solids
and liquids just right. Too much solid fat will result in a
higher melt point. This creates a finished product with a
residual or waxy mouthfeel. Too much liquid oil and the
mouthfeel will be slick. Bakers also might see issues with
air retention for leavening, cell structure and density reduction, which would be a problem for cake volume and
icing functionality, Mr. Bohm explained.
AAK's Cisao line of shortenings are palm-based and
not hydrogenated. They are available for specific applications such as icings as well as all-purpose for a variety of
applications.
Continued research and improvement of fat sources
- exotic and domestic, plant and animal - are leading
to more exacting shortening and oil solutions for the
baking industry. Today's PHO alternatives are just one
chapter in the continuing story of fats and oils.

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Baking & Snack - June 2018

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