Fatty acids profile and physicochemical properties of various shortenings formulated with palm oil

Shortenings are a mixture of one or more vegetable edible oil with partial hydrogenation in mixed with or without animal fat. In this study, three formulations of shortenings, with the best commercial and technological properties were prepared. Increasing consumption of shortenings at the human daily diet, with low adverse coronary effects in human daily diet, three formulations prepared using a mixture of different oils and Palm fat (as the basis) followed by the evaluation the fatty acid profile and chemical properties. All formulations were studied in terms of suitability in food applications. The obtained results indicated that there were no significant differences between physicochemical properties, peroxide value, refractive index and acidity of samples. Only the melting point had a significant difference (p < 0.05). Apart from trans fatty acids and oleic acid contents, there were no differences between fatty acids pattern, and the palmitic, stearic, linoleic and linolenic acids. The results indicated that between total saturated fatty acids, total unsaturated fatty acids and MUFA/PUFA there were great differences that must be noticed due to nutritional attributes. Peroxide value of samples indicated that the percent of oleic, linolenic and linoleic acids have a detrimental role on the peroxidative stability of analyzed formulations. Due to the results, all of the formulations can be used as a replacement for traditional hydrogenated fats in the bakery industry, only their trans fatty acids must be lowered.