Nutritional and Functional Properties of Fat Mimetics

Abstract

The scientific and industrial communities have been giving great attention to fat mimetics with potential nutritional and functional properties. Nowadays, a number of new fat mimetics to reduce or eliminate saturated and trans fatty acids from the human diet have been designed and produced not only to maintain the acceptable textural and sensory properties but also to improve the nutritional and functional profile of the food products. Given that vegetable oils are trans-free and contain reduced levels of saturated fatty acids, structuring oil into soft matters has been increasingly used to reduce or even abandon the â traditionalâ solid fats. In this chapter, some emerging fat mimetics were introduced as representatives, including oleogels, emulsion-templated oleogels, emulsion gels, as well as structured emulsions. Moreover, content involving food-grade fat mimetics have already proven their applicability in various food types, such as sausages, cream cheese, margarine, cookies, ice cream, and spreads for replacing trans- and saturated fats. They were used to reduce fat intake, improve in-vitro and in-vivo digestion and control the delivery and release of bioactive molecules. In addition, they are used to texture design and modification, reduce lipid oxidation and can be pointed as a way of reducing the environmental impact of fats. Extensive research needs to be done to explore the use of clean-label ingredients and produce fat mimetics on an industrial scale. It will be important in the future to explore the structure-function relationships of fat mimetics for the applications in different food products, focusing on lipid oxidation, in in-vivo digestion biochemical transformations, as well as to explore the nutritional benefits, processing considerations, and the application in more complex food products.