oils and fats

Tropical oils and fats

Tropical oils and fats are increasingly used as ingredients in bakery, confectionery or other products: breadsticks, crackers, rusks, biscuits, snacks, spreads, pastries, chocolate, sauces, ready-made fish fillets for frying, etc.

TROPICAL FATS AND HEALTH

Saturated fatty acids, especially myristic, lauric and palmitic, are the main responsible for the hypercholesterolemizing and atherogenic action .

TROPICAL FATS ON THE LABEL

From 12/13/2014, thanks to the entry into force of the new European Commission regulation (1169/2011), the use of the generic wording "vegetable oils" in the food product label is prohibited.

In all Member States, producers are obliged to report to consumers the exact nature of the used oil, specifying the type on the label (eg olive oil, palm oil, etc.).

Furthermore, if the oils or fats used are hydrogenated, it is mandatory to specify this by adding the words "totally hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" as appropriate.

Tropical oils

Coconut oil: excellent taste, chemical composition: lauric acid (C12: 0) 44.8%; B.C. mystic (C14: 0) 17.0%; B.C. palmitic acid (C16: 0) 8.4%; B.C. saturated fats total 86.8%.

Palm kernel oil (oil palm seeds): excellent taste, chemical composition: almost comparable to coconut oil.

Palm oil (fruit pulp): excellent taste, chemical composition: ac. palmitico about 50.0%; B.C. lauric and ac. mystic small percentages.

Babasso oil ( Orbignya oleifera ): good taste, the term derives from the tupi dialect and indicates a particular species of oil palm.

Tropical fats

Dica butter (dika) (extracted from the seeds of irvingia gabonensis): pleasant taste, tending to sweet, with a seductive cocoa aroma, chemical composition: ac. lauric and ac. myristic about 90.0%.

Shea butter (shea, galan): made from the seeds of an African tree.

Illipe butter (bassia, mahwa).

Dika, charity and illipe butter are mainly used in the chocolate industry, due to their organoleptic characteristics.

THE MCT, SATURATED FAT BUT GOOD!

Medium chain triglycerides (MCT, Medium Chain Triglicerides) are triglycerides formed by medium-chain fatty acids (6 to 12 carbon atoms). They are therefore saturated fats, but they have many differences compared to long-chain ones, in fact:

  • do not raise the level of LDL cholesterol in the blood;
  • they do not need to be broken down by hydrolysis to be assimilated, but they can be absorbed directly by the intestinal mucosa;
  • they can be used by mitochondria to produce energy without the need for carnitine, with a more efficient process.

In practice, MCTs are digested and used by the body in a similar way to carbohydrates, but they provide more than double energy. This feature makes them useful for feeding those patients with severe digestive disorders, such as failure to absorb fats in the intestine.

Medium chain triglycerides are mainly found in palm shell oil, coconut oil, almonds and butter.

Frying oils

Vegetable oils