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Challenges and Opportunities of Fats and Oils Alejandro G. Marangoni* Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G2W1, Canada more than 2000 calories per day (https://health.gov/ dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-2/). Fat is the most calorie-dense nutrient (9 kcal/g), and thus fat reduction is central to caloric reduction. On the other hand, we are genetically programmed to consume as much fat as we can.1 Fat carries flavors and provides a texture to food products that is almost impossible to achieve if removed. The melting behavior of solid fats is especially critical in the perceived quality of butter and spreads, chocolate, croissants, cakes, and many other products. This love-hate relationship with fat will continue due to our very busy, sedentary lifestyles and abundance of indulgence foods. The main drivers in the market today in the fats and oils sector include (1) Complete elimination of partially hydrogenated fat (2) Reduction in saturated fat and increases in polyunsaturated oils (3) Replacement of animal fats (lard, tallow) with vegetable long with salt and sugar, fat remains a controversial fats (4) Non-GMO fats and oils component of our foods. On one side we know that we (5) Palm oil free? need to restrict caloric intake, and thus eating too much fat Partially hydrogenated fats, the ones containing high levels of works against this lofty goal. On average, men should not eat trans fatty acids, will be officially removed from the GRAS list in more than 2500 calories per day while women should not eat the United States in June of 2018 (https://www.fda.gov/Food/ IngredientsPackagingLabeling/FoodAdditivesIngredients/ ucm449162.htm). Trans fatty acids were shown as early as 1990 to cause an increase in bad cholesterol (LDL) and a decrease in good cholesterol (HDL), and their consumption has since been shown to be highly positively correlated to cardiovascular heart disease.2 Food manufacturers must now completely remove these hard fats from the food supply. Since hard fats, such as trans fats, provide structure and functionality in food materials, one would think that saturated fats could be used instead. However, consumption of saturated fatty acids (SAFA) is also correlated with increases in LDL cholesterol, and a recent analysis of all available science on saturated fat concluded that there is strong evidence supporting the partial replacement of SAFA-rich foods with those rich in cis-PUFA to lower LDL-C and reduce CHD risk.3 The American Heart Association recommends limiting SAFA consumption to 13 g per day or less (https://healthyforgood.heart.org/eat-smart/articles/ saturated-fats). Most consumers do not realize how difficult it is to reduce saturated fat (and fat content) in modern processed food-based diets. Most processed foods are designed to be indulgent and thus contain very high levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt. Governments around the world are adopting aggressive policies toward sugar, salt, and fat/ saturated fat reduction. For example, Chile has implemented a “black traffic light” front of package label for products
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Figure 1. An “Inukshuk” made with canola oil gelled with ethylcellulose. © XXXX American Chemical Society
Received: February 5, 2018
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b00659 J. Agric. Food Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Figure 2. Comparison of conventional and unconventional fat structuring techniques. Aggregated fat crystals form a colloidal network entrapping liquid oil. In a Coasun structured emulsion, liquid oil is entrapped by a hydrated monoglyceride bilayer. The addition of wax to the oil phase forms a gel network that provides an additional level of structure to the liquid oil phase. Reprinted from Food Research International, Vol. 74, Blake, A. I.; Marangoni, A. G. Factors affecting the rheological properties of a structured cellular solid used as a fat mimetic, 284−293 (ref 7), Copyright 2015, with permission from Elsevier.
oleic oils, canola, sunflower, and soybean oils have a greater oxidative stability and contain very low levels of saturated fat. However, these crops are products of genetic engineering, used not only to affect the fatty acid composition of the oils but to impart herbicide resistance or resistance toward insects. The effects of introducing such plants into a natural ecosystem are still mostly unknown. Will they obliterate their non-GM, and less resistant, counterparts? Will they affect insect life, such as bees? This is almost a mute point since it is almost impossible to separate GM from non-GM oils in the marketplace, and in many cases, most of the oils are in fact already GMO.4 So, the fat of the future would need to be an inexpensive non-GMO and certified sustainable vegetable oil containing zero trans fats and low levels of saturated fat. New technologies like oleogels (Figure 1) and structured emulsions (Figure 2) will have to come to the rescue.5,6 More research, both fundamental and applied, needs to be carried out before these novel fat mimetic materials can be implemented in the marketplace.
containing high levels of sugar, salt, and saturated fat (https:// www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/12/486898630/chilebattles-obesity-with-stop-signs-on-packaged-foods). This strategy is an attempt to curb the massive increase in obesity in that county. Canada is following suit rapidly (https://www.canada. ca/en/health-canada/programs/front-of-package-nutritionlabelling/consultation-document.html). There is yet another mounting problem for saturated fats, the source of the fat. Consumers prefer their fat to originate from vegetable sources. Consumption of animal fats is problematic due to religious guidelines: Hindus cannot eat tallow; Muslims and Jews cannot eat lard; vegans and animal lovers cannot eat either. Besides this, there is not enough animal fat to supply the needs of the food industry. The only other commercially viable option is palm oil and its fractions. Palm oil is the largest oilseed crop in the world, with close to 70 M metric tons produced globally per year. Palm oil is one of the few vegetable “oils” that is solid at 25 °C and can thus be used as a fat. It is also inexpensive and widely available. However, a large proportion of consumers have become concerned about the sustainability of palm oil production and have boycotted its use. The cultivation of palm oil requires cutting down tropical rainforests to establish commercial plantations. This clearing involves not only cutting down the trees but also burning the remaining brush. Habitat destruction is complete, leading to a massive destruction of native animal and plant species not to mention blanketing most of Southeast Asia in smoke for several months per year. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (https://rspo.org/about/ sustainable-palm-oil) was established to address these issues, which include responsible farming, certification, and others. However, a large proportion of palm oil is not certified sustainable, and this author cannot understand how palm oil production can be made to be sustainable; the damage has and continues being done. Having said this, palm oil is not the only culprit of being unsustainable. This author would like to see analysis on the sustainability of soybean oil in North America, Argentina, and Brazil. Were not forests destroyed to create commercial soy and corn plantations? Sustainability would also be an issue for animal fats, since growing livestock is very unsustainable (http://www.worldwatch.org/node/549). Finally, we have the issue of genetically modified (GM) food, since most consumers fear them. For example, the new high-
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Phone: +1 519-824-4120 ext. 45340. ORCID
Alejandro G. Marangoni: 0000-0002-3129-4473 Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Davidson, S.; Lear, M.; Shanley, L.; Hing, B.; Baizan-Edge, A.; Herwig, A.; MacKenzie, A. Differential Activity by Polymorphic Variants of a Remote Enhancer that Supports Galanin Expression in the Hypothalamus and Amygdala: Implications for Obesity, Depression and Alcoholism. Neuropsychopharmacology 2011, 36, 2211−2221.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b00659 J. Agric. Food Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2) Mensink, R. P.; Katan, M. B. Effect of dietary trans fatty acids on high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in healthy subjects. N. Engl. J. Med. 1990, 323, 439−45. (3) Nettleton, J. A.; Brouwer, I. A.; Geleijnse, J. M.; Hornstra, G. Saturated Fat Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Ischemic Stroke: A Science Update. Ann. Nutr. Metab. 2017, 70, 26− 33. (4) Bawa, A. S.; Anilakumar, K. R. Genetically modified foods: safety, risks and public concernsa review. J. Food Sci. Technol. 2013, 50, 1035−1046. (5) Co, E.; Marangoni, A. G. Organogels: An Alternative Edible OilStructuring Method. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 2012, 89, 749−780. (6) Marangoni, A. G.; Idziak, S. H. J.; Vega, C.; Batte, H.; Ollivon, M.; Jantzi, P. S.; Rush, J. W. Oil Microencapsulation Attenuates Acute Elevation of Blood Lipids and Insulin in Humans. Soft Matter 2007, 3, 183−187. (7) Blake, A. I.; Marangoni, A. G. Factors Affecting the Rheological Properties of a Structured Cellular Solid Used as a Fat Mimetic. Food Res. Int. 2015, 74, 284−293.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b00659 J. Agric. Food Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
