Narihide Matsuzaki

On the formation of granular crystals in fat blends containing palm oil

The use of palm oil for plastic fats has encountered serious difficulty due to its crystallization properties, one of which is the formation of granular crystals. The granular crystals cause sandy teste and inhomogeneity of fat crystal morphology of end products. In the present study, we analyzed the formation process of these granular crystals. Chemical and physical analyses for triacylglycerol (TAG) compositions, polymorphism and melting points of the granular crystals led to the conclusion that the granular crystals are of the most stable polymorph, β1, of POP (1,3-dipalmitoyl 2-oleoyl glycerol) with triple chainlength fat blend consisting of POP and reapeseed oil. The following characteristics of β1 polymorph of POP contribute to the formation of granular crystals in fat blends containing palm oil: (i) β1 reveals well-defined plate-like crystal morphology, which grows easily into the bulky granular from; (ii) the triple chainlength structure of POP has a tendency to segregate and does not from a solid solution together with other TAGs.

Enzymatic modification of canola/palm oil mixtures: Effects on the fluidity of the mixture

The bioreactor system to interesterify edible oils and fats at an ultra-micro aqueous phase of 100 ppm and less was investigated. The adsorption of lecithin, together with lipase onto a carrier, was effective for conducting the interesterifying reaction efficiently for oils and fats in micro aqueous phase.To improve the handling properties of palm oil at rather low temperature, palm oil was blended with canola or soybean oil, and then these blended oils were modified by enzymatic selective interesterification in a solvent-free, ultra-micro aqueous bioreactor system with an immobilized lipase that had 1,3-positional specificity. The effects of enzymatic interesterification were confirmed by triglyceride determination, by solid fat content profiles and by cloud point profiles, which were also compared to products of chemical interesterification. The improvement in the fluidity of blended oils with canola oil by the enzymatic reaction was bigger than with soybean oil, and chemical interesterification had no effects on the fluidity of blended oils.