Vegetable oils products, free of trans fats

Trans fats linked so far to cardiovascular disease, although on the other hand, contribute to food texture preferred by consumers. It can be formed, for example when some types of margarine (which is produced by the partial hydrogenation) are heated. Therefore, it needs to be reconsidered to develop products that are more friendly to health, and off course still maintain the sensory value. Actually increasing concern for health is a chance for the industry, particularly palm oil to produce vegetable oils products that are free of trans fats because it does not contain the types of fats.

Research conducted by Byung Hee Kim et al (2009) from the University of Georgia said that the interesterification mixture from vegetable oil of canola, palm stearin (PS), and palm kernel with a certain ratio produced margarine with the same quality as a commercial margarine. As for shortening, a mixture of PS and coconut oil (CnO) produced fats that can be used as an elastic shortening. Jeyarani et al. (2009) in a report published by the Journal of Food Chemistry stated that a mixture with a certain ratio of PS and CnO has a wider melting range, making it suitable to be used as a shortening.
Other alternatives of vegetable oils products that are free of trans fats is to develop Cocoa Butter Substitute (CBS). It can be produced from vegetable oils and fats by chemical means or fractionation and enzymatic processing. CBS manufacture technology from palm kernel oil (PKO) has been developed into a large industrial scale including fractionation and hydrogenation and its combination. But this technology in small-scale industries are not yet available. PO Research Center in Indonesia has resulted technology of full hydrogenation process for crude PKO and without producing trans fats under conditions of moderate temperature and high pressure. Magnification scale into 100 kg/batch needs to be done and the process conditions are optimized to support the use of PKO in small and medium scale industries. The process of hydrogenation use hydrogen to saturate the unsaturated fatty acids with the aid of a catalyst. Commonly used catalyst is the nickel. The fats products which contain no trans fats is important because of its low density increase lipoprotein (LDL) and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) thus becomes an important risk factor in coronary heart disease.

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Trans fats in snack

World snack industries are growing quite rapidly. Innovation and high market demand is the key why the product is still evolving. In fact, this excessive consumption is often regarded as the cause of several health problems. For example, obesity, trans fats in snacks, acrylamide, and so on.
The substantial processing of trans fats solidify liquid oils (usually vegetable oil) with hydrogen gas in a process known as hydrogenation (ie, by adding hydrogen to them). This processing is performed to improve the oxidative stability so that the product is not susceptible to oxidation processes. This process is used to make margarine. Most of them are artificially synthesized through a chemical process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil. In short words, it means changing liquid oils into solid fats.
The benefits of this hydrogenation are the cheap product with a longer period of storage and extending its shelf life and adding flavor savory meal. Trans fats in snacks can make delicious stuff, and french fries in fast food restaurants favored by many people. With this fat biscuits may last more than 1 year . Another feature of these ingredients is to make the food tasty textured or easily melted in the mouth, crispy, and generate flavor and aroma of savory and delicious. Children generally love this kind of snack.
They are formed through a process of partial hydrogenation and its existence becomes a very important issue in recent years. This is because of the presence of trans fatty acids can lead to increased levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood and the risk of heart disease. So it is understood if the USFDA requires to include the presence of these fatty acids in the label. However, in recent years many food manufacturers have taken steps to limit or eliminate trans fats in snacks. Several fast food restaurants, since a decade ago claimed to have stopped cooking fries using it. Many company websites claim that all kinds of fried foods have trans fats free. Even New York City in 2007 adopted regulations that prohibit partially hydrogenated vegetable oil spread in the restaurant.
Since 2005, food manufacturers have claimed to lower their amount in snacks to more than 73 %. Trans fats intake among U.S. consumers declined from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to about 1 gram per day in 2012, according to FDA. Other countries also trying to reduce them in snacks are Brazil, Costa Rica, Denmark, the Netherlands, South Korea and the United States and has been proven effective over the past two decades, according to the WHO.

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Fatty acid composition of soybean oil

Soybean is well known as the raw material for the production of traditional food in Indonesia, such as tempeh and tofu, while in the USA it is widely used to produce oil, because the fat content is quite high at 14-23%, and an average of 19%. Therefore, soybean oil has long been known as a frying medium which is commonly used in the United States and European countries. But in Asian countries, especially Southeast Asia, palm and coconut oil is more commonly used for frying because of the availability of its raw materials that is abundant in that region. The debate regarding the impact of the fatty acid content of the three types of frying medium on health is rising. Therefore, the fatty acid composition of soybean oil and the consequence should be understood first.
Oil content and composition in soybean are influenced by varieties, climate, and growing conditions. Crude fat content indicate the presence of triglycerides 90-95%, while the rest is phosphatides, free fatty acids, sterols, and tocopherols. Its oil content is relatively lower than other types of beans, but higher than the cereals. High protein levels lead to its common usage as protein source instead of oil sources in some countries.
Fatty acid composition of soybean oil is rich in essential fat (linoleat/omega-3 and linolenat/omega-6) that is needed by human body and is claimed to prevent atherosclerosis. In more detail, unsaturated fat content is about 85%, consisting of oleic (11-60%), linoleic (15-64%), linolenic (1-12), and arachidonat (1.5%), while its saturated fat is about 15%, consisting of palmitic (7-10%), stearic (2-5%), and others (0.2%). Nevertheless, it will be damaged during heating, for example when it is used for frying as linoleic and linolenic are more sensitive to heat than oleic. It also must go through the process of hydrogenation in order to increase the stability. This makes oil hydrogenation produces trans fat which is also bad for the heart. Several efforts have been done, such as natural pollination research by the team of researchers from the University of Missouri and rotation with corn by Nacer Bellaloui et.al. (2010) to increase the oleic in fatty acid composition of soybean oil, because it is more stable to heat so it does not require hydrogenation.
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