Baking & Snack - March 2010 - 51

FATS & OILS

Shortenings for 'health and wellness'
applications must also provide the right
functionality for the bakery production process.
BY LAURIE GORTON
hen adopting "health and wellness" as a strategy
for bakery product development, the tactics for
arriving at this goal must include proper choice
of fats, oils and the shortenings made from them.
In recent years, much work has been done to replace shortenings containing trans fats, but going "trans free" is only one
choice. Elimination of hydrogenated shortenings helps clean
up ingredient statements, while another option is to use fats
high in omega-3 fatty acids that support good heart health.
Choosing the right fat or oil involves not only picking
health benefits but also selecting manufacturing functionality. For many baked foods, such choices may require
opening the door to saturated fats. Current developments,
however, allow preparation of shortenings that have the
performance of old-fashioned "hard" fats but with considerably lower saturated fat content.
"Shortening is used in bakery products to confer
structure, tenderness and shelf life," said Roger Daniels,
director, R&D, Bunge North America, Bradley, IL. "In
addition, the in-process functionality required by the
baker or manufacturer relative to dough consistency
and dough machinability indicates a balancing act when
formulating to health and wellness targets."
"Limiting factors involve the application and its processing
requirements," explained Lynn Lawrence, national technology manager, bakery, Stratas Foods, Memphis, TN. "When
formulating to meet nutrition goals, you can eliminate some
aspects, but you still need the shortening functionality."

'LOW,' NOT 'NO.' Functionality explains the presence of
saturated fats in many of the new shortenings being devel▲ Conversion of laminated baked foods to use no-trans, no-hydro
shortenings has been difficult until oil processors began blending liquid
oils with "hard stock" such as palm oil.

oped for bakery applications. From a functionality standpoint, the ideal bakery shortening is lard, a highly saturated
animal fat. More than 30 years ago, bakers switched to allvegetable oils to take advantage of the healthier appeal of the
mono- and polyunsaturated fats in these oils.
Vegetable oils, with only a few exceptions, are liquid oils
and lack the creaming and structuring abilities that traditional bakery fats offer. Hydrogenation of liquid oils addresses that problem, giving these materials better plasticity,
stability and structuring characteristics. The hydrogenation
process, however, also flips many fatty acids from their
natural cis configuration to their trans isomers. An increasing body of scientific research has shown the negative effect
of trans fatty acids on heart health, hence their elimination
from bakery shortenings.
"In health-and-wellness formulating, there is a need to
use no-trans, no-hydro shortenings that are also low in
saturated fats because you need some solid fat for functionality," said Jeffrey Fine, director of new products and
technology, AAK, Port Newark, NJ.
BIG THREE, PLUS ONE. While trans fats - or rather,
their elimination - has been the No. 1 issue, two additional criteria have emerged and are commonly described as "no hydro" and "low sat." Stated another way,
shortenings must be selected that do not require the
words "hydrogenated" or even "partially hydrogenated"
in ingredient listings on the package. And the presence
of saturated fats must be kept as low as possible.
"Until recently, most bakers have been asking for no-trans,
no-hydro, but now some are requesting low-sat aspects, too,"
Mr. Fine said. "These three factors - no-trans, no-hydro,
low-sat - are the drivers behind shortening choices today,
but the fourth big attribute is functionality. You must be sure
you get the functionality needed to produce your products."

March 2010 / BAKING & SNACK

Baking & Snack - March 2010

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