Abstract
Lipids are key ingredients in the human diet. Because of the manipulation and modification of lipids in the food industry, the amount of trans and saturated fat has been substantially increasing in industrialized products. At the same time, the number of studies demonstrating the harmful effects of these foods on human health has increased. Organogels arise as a promising alternative for replacing trans and saturated fat in processed foods. Among the main challenges of preparing an organogel is the difficulty of finding compatible and viable structuring agents in the food industry. Waxes have been studied for this purpose and are one of the most promising organogelators. This article brings a bibliographical review on the recent studies regarding the use of waxes as structuring agents for edible vegetable oils.
Highlights
The authors showed that the substitution of organogel by up to 100% of total fat did not change parameters such as pH or acidity, important parameters that interfere in the capacity of aeration of ice creams
Organogels were tested as alternatives to replace saturated and trans-fats, producing healthier foods
The biggest challenge for researchers is to find an organogel that provides the same level of technological performance and versatility of solid fats for their applications, both in processing and sensory requirements
Summary
Regarding the concept of gels, based on material science, a more sensible definition should be limited to systems that possess following phenomenological characteristics: (1) consist of two or more components, of which the major component is liquid; (2) the minor components must be solid or semisolid. The size, shape, and interaction of these crystals will determine the mechanical properties of the organogel This type of structuring can be activated with diacylglycerols, monoacylglycerols, fatty acids, waxes, and sorbitans, which are widely used in foods (Marangoni and Garti, 2011). Liquid crystals: Lipid crystalline occurs with the formation of organogel through a semi-crystalline scaffold formed inside the oil with gel properties through the polarity route. These scaffolds are formed by the crystalline mesophasic liquid which are substances in the intermediate state between liquid and solid (Marangoni and Garti, 2011). Wax organogels are the central focus of this review, the physicochemical characteristics of natural waxes, their structuring properties, as well as their applications will be extensively discussed during the sections
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