ABSTRACT
Introduction e interest in fats and oils and their presence in foods has gone through a number of developmental stages, each causing a change in priorities at various times in product development cycles. ese stages include: the elimination of saturated fats, the “fat-free” phase, the fat and calorie reduction phase, the reduction of trans fats, and the search for healthy fats from natural and biosynthetic routes. All of this is gradually evolving into a more rational design of better-quality, more healthy products as we learn more about the effects of changes in diet. e need to eliminate saturated fats and to increase fiber became apparent in the 1980s. e number of companies marketing fiber products surged enormously, then ebbed as the fiber frenzy dwindled. As we entered the 1990s, the message that saturated fats were “bad” progressed into the need to eliminate fats entirely, that to be “fat free” was golden. is spawned a race to develop new fat replacers to fill the need, many
Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 507 Fat is Essential and Functional ................................................................................................ 508 Fat Replacers – An Overview ....................................................................................................510 Carbohydrates as Fat Replacers .................................................................................................511 Proteins as Fat Replacers ...........................................................................................................517 Fat-based Fat Replacers .............................................................................................................518 Blending Ingredients ................................................................................................................521 Summary ..................................................................................................................................521 References ................................................................................................................................522
claiming to be the one ingredient to replace fat in all food systems. As noted by M. Glicksman in 1991, “every food company, ingredient supplier, and biotechnology company is looking for a colorless, odorless liquid that looks, tastes, and functions like oil but has no calories and is less expensive than water,” what Glicksman referred to as the “oily Grail” (Glicksman 1991). Some categories, such as dairy and salad dressing, were able to produce reasonably acceptable fat-free or reduced-fat alternatives over time. In other areas, such as baked goods (in which less water was available in the system and any added water caused noticeable differences), the quality of these products was poor, and consumer acceptance has dwindled over time. During this era of product development, the work on fat replacement led to better understanding of ingredient interactions, resulting in a reasonable lowering of fat and calories in foods using, for the most part, conventional food ingredients. roughout the 2000s, product development became more pre-occupied with fad diets before settling into a concentration on sugar and calorie reduction. Reduction of trans fats is still an issue, and still a focus of concentration. “Fat free” may still be attractive in some categories, but is not the driving force it once was and, as a result, many of the “fat replacer” and “fat substitute” products have been replaced by a blend of more traditional ingredients. Cost and consumer awareness have played some role in this. It is interesting to note that many consumer studies now note that “low fat,” “low sugar,” and “low sodium” are the diet trends of interest in 2012 rather than the “free” trends of the 1990s and 2000s.
