The physical and chemical properties of policosanol-based organogel shortening for replacing saturated and trans-fat in cookies

Abstract

Organogel is edible oil gel with organogelators which are interested in an alternative way of making zero trans-fat and low saturated fat shortening. Policosanol is a group of long-chain fatty alcohol that shows good organogelator property. Policosanol can be extracted from many sources such as sugar cane wax (SCW), rice bran wax (RBW), and beeswax (BW). The policosanol from different sources are varied in their compositions that may affect on the gelling ability. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the fatty acid composition, physical and chemical properties of policosanol-based organogel shortening for replacing saturated and trans-fat in cookies. The results showed that the organogel shortening had high monounsaturated fatty acid as well as rice bran oil and no trans-fat. Moreover, organogel shortening had lower saturated fat (23.77%) than commercial shortening (CS) (34.39%). The stability index and firmness value were ordered from CS, RWS, SWS, and BWS, respectively. The lowest peroxide value was CS (1.32 meq/ kg oil) and followed by BWS (1.46 meq/ kg oil) whereas there was no significant difference in the acid value between the commercial and organogel shortening (0.03 ?? 0.00 mg KOH/g oil). It was also found that the replacement of shortening with organogel produced cookies with high hardness and crispiness than CS cookies. Furthermore, all organogel shortening cookies had low saturated fat and zero trans-fat. Thus, policosanol-based organogel shortening can be used as alternative shortening in cookies.