Characteristics of combined oleogels and their applications in the food industry

Cardiovascular diseases, which are one of the main causes of death worldwide, have a direct relationship with the intake of saturated and trans fatty acids. Various methods have been used to reduce this type of fat in the diet, among which it can be mentioned replacing solid fats with other macronutrients, especially liquid oils that contain high amounts of unsaturated fatty acids. But directly replacing saturated fats with unsaturated types can have negative effects on the textural and organoleptic properties of the product, because it is well known that saturated fats play a significant role in creating the structure and creamy texture in the products containing them. Various techniques are used to create structure in liquid oils. Oleogelation is one of these methods that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years because it has the ability to form a thermoreversible gel as a result of being combined with liquid oil. During this method, a small concentration of the gelling agent (oleogelator) is dissolved in the oil and creates a three-dimensional network that can trap the liquid oil in its channels and cavities. The oleogelation technique creates a solid or semi-solid state in liquid oil without increasing the level of saturated and trans fatty acids, but the findings have shown that the use of only one oleogelator in the production of oleogel cannot imitate the functional characteristics of solid fats well. Therefore, recent studies have gone towards investigating the synergistic effects of two or more oleogelators in the production of oleogels. In this review, recent literatures on the edible oleogels produced from combination of gelators for food applications have been summarized.

Keywords:

“oleogel , organogel , oleogelator , mixed , binary , food industry”