Production of healthier palm‐based edible oil blends and enzymatic interesterified structured lipids for cooking and trans‐free fat formulation applications

Abstract

AbstractPresent study aimed to prepare palm‐based blends with edible oils to obtain healthier smart blends with a desired fatty acid profile of SAFA:MUFA:PUFA ratios as established by international health authorities for potential use in cooking and trans‐free fat formulation applications. Several blends of palm olein (POo), super olein (SOo) and palm stearin (PS) with sunflower (SFO), soybean (SBO), rice bran (RBO), mustard (MO), olive (OO) and sesame (SMO) oils were prepared in different mass (wt/wt) ratios. Among the prepared blends, the 6:4 POo:SFO, 1:1/6:4 POo:SBO, 6:4 SOo:SBO and 4:6 PS:RBO/SMO blends; 2:8 POo:RBO, 6:4 SOo:SFO blends and 1:1/6:4 POo:SMO, 1:1/6:4 POo:RBO, 6:4 SOo:SMO blends were found to have the balanced fatty acid profiles closer to AHA/JMHW/WHO recommended SFA:MUFA:PUFA ratios of 1:1:1/1:1.5:1/1:1.5:0.7, respectively. In addition, the 1:1/6:4 POo:SBO and 6:4 SOo:SBO blends also fulfilled the required ω‐6/ω‐3 ratios of 9.5 and 10.5 along with balanced fatty acid profile of 1:1:1 as per the nutritional guidelines. The 6:4 POo/SOo with SFO/SBO, 1:1 SOo:SMO and 4:6 PS:RBO/SMO smart blends were further processed for enzymatic interesterification (EIE) employing Lipozyme TLIM packed in a specially designed basket type stirrer (BTS) equipped in a bioreactor at 70°C with agitation speed of 390 rpm for 9 h to obtain trans‐free interesterified (IE) structured lipids (SLs) with desired physicochemical properties. This BTS technology helped to sustain the structure and morphology of the enzyme intact, and enable to process about 9 kg of the edible oil blends for IE with excellent recyclability and stability for 81 active hours.