Synergistic effects of oleogelators in tailoring the properties of oleogels: A review

Abstract

Conventional solid fats play a crucial role as an ingredient in many processed foods. However, these fats contain a high amount of saturated fats and trans fats. Legislations and dietary recommendations related to these two types of fats set forth as a consequence of evidence showing their deleterious health impact have triggered the attempts to find alternate tailor-made lipids for these solid fats.Oleogels is considered as a novel alternative, which has reduced saturated fat and no trans fat content. In addition to mimicking the distinctive characteristics of solid fats, oleogels can be developed to contain a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids and used to deliver bioactives. Although there has been a dramatic rise in the interest in developing oleogels for food applications over the past decade, none of them has been commercially used in foods so far due to the deficiency in their crystal network structure, particularly in monocomponent gels.Very recently, there is a surge in the interest in using of combination of gelators due to the synergistic effects that aid in overcoming the drawbacks in monocomponent gels. However, currently, there is no comprehensive insight into synergism among oleogelators reported in recent studies. Therefore, a comprehensive intuition into the findings reported on synergism is crucial to fill this gap. The objective of this review is to give a comprehensive insight into synergism among gelators based on recent literature. This paper also identifies the future research propositions towards developing oleogels capable of exactly mimicking the properties of conventional solid fats to bridge the gap between laboratory research and the food industry.

Virgin coconut oil oleogel: gelation mechanism, rheological, structural and thermal properties

“…It should be noted that the SA has a good gelling material due to its long aliphatic chain and the higher chain length FAs easily forms a stable gel with lower concentration (Gaudino et al ., 2019; Sivakanthan et al ., 2022). Moreover, a longer FA chain increases the melting point of oleogels and lowers the amount of gelator required for gelation (Daniel & Rajasekharan, 2003).…”

Polysaccharide-Based Edible Gels as Functional Ingredients: Characterization, Applicability, and Human Health Benefits

“…In this regard, a previous comprehensive review about the utilization of EC in food applications illustrates in detail the production, structure, and properties of pure EC, as well as the mechanism of gelation and the parameters affecting the final gel properties [ 55 ]. The primary characteristic of the oleogels is that they can be developed with zero-trans and reduced saturated fats, making them a healthier lipid compared to conventional solid fats [ 56 ].…”

Temperature‐responsive palm oil‐based‐oleogels for encapsulation of D‐limonene: effect of fat crystallisation and melting point

“…Therefore, the lipid composition of POs can be altered to obtain the desired crystalline properties by constructing oleogels in the presence of gelators. To date, studies have focused on the effects of gelant concentration and the relative proportions of composite gels on the physicochemical properties of oleogels and on the controlled release of encapsulated fragrance components (Chen et al ., 2021; Sivakanthan et al ., 2022). Meanwhile, no systematic studies have reported on the effects of using natural oils with different melting points as base oils on oleogel gelation, textural properties, and retention of volatile components.…”