Physicochemical characteristics of ternary fat blends involving low-erucic rapeseed oil

Some fat systems made of low-erucic (LERO) and hydrogenated low-erucic rapeseed oil (HLERO) blended with a third component are studied for their physical properties, especially for solid fat content by pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (pNMR) and melting profile by differential scanning calorimetry; a comparison is made with a commercial bakery shortening. The third component is made of hydrogenated palm oil (HPO), palm oil (PO), palm stearin (Pst), palm olein (Pol) or anhydrous milk fat (AMF). The goal is to increase the chain length diversity of the systems. Polymorphic stability is evaluated by powder X-ray diffraction. HPO is the best beta-prime-stabilizing agent, followed by PO and its fractions, then by AMF. However, only a small part of the ternary diagram made with HPO, the best beta-prime-stabilizing agent, displays a melting profile similar to the commercial bakery shortening. In contrast, the diagrams made of PO and of its fractions show greater composition zones suitable for use as bakery shortenings. In this series, Pol seems to be the best candidate. A restricted AMFHLERO-LERO beta-prime composition zone has also a solid fat content profile (by pNMR) similar to the commercial bakery shortening.