Abstract

The World Health Organization recommends reducing the intake of saturated fatty acids. However, a direct replacement of solid fats with liquid oils affects the technological and consumer properties of food. The research objective was to develop a hybrid gel with a dense structure based on oleogel and hydrogel to replace saturated fats in semi-finished confectionery products.
The study featured samples of oleogel from sunflower oil and beeswax at a concentration of 10, 15, and 20% and hybrid gels prepared by mixing the oleogel with a 2% aqueous solution of sodium alginate at ratios of 99:1, 95:5, and 90:10. The samples were tested for strength, adhesive power, viscosity index, consistency, and Young modulus using a TA-XT Plus texture analyzer (Stable Micro Systems Ltd., UK). The water activity was studied using a water activity analyzer LabMaster (Novasina, Lab Master, Switzerland).
The oleogel samples with wax concentrations of 20 and 15% demonstrated good adhesive strength. The best hybrid gel was the oleogel with 20% wax at the ratio of 95:5 to hydrogel. This ratio resulted in a considerable gel strength (≤ 408.222) while maintaining a dense and uniform texture (Young modulus ≤ 17.05) for a long time. The oleogels had low moisture content (A_w = 0.6 ± 0). The shelf life at 4–10°C was 6 months. The samples had good sensory properties, i.e., clear taste and smell, strong uniform structure and consistency, etc. The paper introduces a formulation for a semi-finished confectionery product with a hybrid gel instead of 30% cocoa butter substitute.
Hybrid gels can be recommended as a substitute for cocoa butter or confectionery fats to reduce the amount of saturated and trans fatty acids. Such a replacement improves the consumer properties of semi-finished and finished products.

Keywords

Oleogel, saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids, trans fats, structurant, hydrocolloids, confectionery

Contribution

V.S. Kutsenkova performed the literature review, conducted the experiments, processed the results, wrote the article, and raised funds. N.V. Nepovinnykh provided scientific guidance, analyzed the research results, wrote and proofread the manuscript. S.A. Yeganehzad conducted the research, analyzed the textural proeprties of oleogels and bigels, and analyzed the results. All the authors equally participated in the writing of the manuscript and are responsible for anu potential cases of plagiarism

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article.

FUNDING

This study was supported by the Grant of President of Russian Federation for Young Scientists, no. MK-402.2022.4. The research involved the equipment of the Research Center for Food and Chemical Technologies of Kuban State Technological University (KUBSTU) (CKP_3111) supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Minobrnauka) (Agreement № 075-15-2021-679).

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