An exciting time to be in fats and oils research
Bunge Oils director of innovation Dilip Nakhasi says the furor over trans fats that hit the headlines around a decade ago kick-started a wave of innovation in fats and oils research as firms sought to eliminate/reduce trans fats without compromising taste or performance.
"It’s been a pretty exciting time to work in fats and oils and what is really exciting is seeing the way plant lipid science and fats and oils science is coming together."
And Bunge has been at the cutting edge of developments in saturated fat reduction, recently making a major breakthrough with the launch of high oleic, zero trans-fat bakery shortenings (#172 and #358) under its UltraBlends brand containing less than 19% saturated fat by utilizing Bunge's patented ‘saturate sparing’ technology, he says.
“This technology is based on a hard stock blend of soy and palm, which when combined with cellulose fiber, enables the shortening system to trap and bind large amounts of liquid oil, while contributing structure. It creates a cage that traps liquid oil. We launched the products at IFT last month and we’ve had great feedback."