Feasibility of hemp seed oil oleogels structured with natural wax as solid fat replacement in margarine

Abstract

AbstractCold‐pressed hempseed oil (HSO) is known to have many health benefits due to many phytochemicals and high polyunsaturated fatty acids content. In this study, HSO oleogels were prepared with 3%, 5%, and 7% natural waxes including sunflower wax (SW), rice bran wax (RBW), beeswax, and candelilla wax to evaluate their potential as solid fat replacements in margarines and spreads. Firmness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, solid fat content (SFC), crystal structures, and melting properties of these oleogels were evaluated. In general, HSO oleogels except for RBW‐HSO oleogels had lower gel strength and weaker crystal network than the corresponding soybean oil (SBO) oleogels. In contrast, RBW‐HSO oleogels had comparable gel strength to SBO oleogels. After removing polar compounds from HSO, waxes except for RBW provided oleogels with greater firmness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, and stronger crystal network. Therefore, it was concluded that polar compounds negatively affected the physical properties of wax‐HSO oleogels but not those of RBW‐HSO oleogels. Margarine samples were prepared with SW‐ and RBW‐HSO oleogels, and their firmness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, and melting properties were examined. The firmness of these margarines indicated that wax‐HSO oleogels may achieve the firmness of commercial spreads with less than 3% wax while the firmness of stick margarines cannot be achieved even with 7% wax. Although the properties of wax‐HSO oleogels should be further improved, they showed potential as solid fat replacements in margarines and spreads.