ABSTRACT
The development of food products with flavor and quality attributes similar to their full fat and calorie counterparts but reduced in both fat and calories has presented a major technological challenge for food manufacturers. Caloric contribution from fat can be reduced by one or more approaches including fat reduction by emulsion technology, fat mimetics, low calorie fats, and fat substitutes. Emulsifiers are also lipid-based, but some may include carbohydrate moieties as well. Emulsifiers have been in wide use in fat replacement systems for some time. Incorporating emulsifiers such as mono- and diacylglycerols into the formulation of fat-reduced products is appealing because these compounds are familiar ingredients with an established record of safety. Fat mimetics function in fat replacement by simulating the physical attributes of fat. These types of fat replacers are structurally engineered to form spheroidal particles that slide over one another upon hydration.
