Edible Fats & Oils

Enriching a product's flavor

Producers achieve a variety of results using different approaches to adding fat ingredients. Many fats enrich a food product's flavor. Certain oils emulsify to create margarine and spreads. Essential fatty acids make foods and supplements more nutritious in the nutraceutical industry.

Commercial food producers use fats and oils as emulsifiers or the oil in an emulsion. Emulsions consist of oil suspended in water or water suspended in oil. Water and oil naturally separate without the addition of an emulsifier. Ingredients like lecithin attract both oil and water molecules. This dual attraction keeps an emulsion blended together. Alternative fat emulsions reduce the fat content of food without compromising its quality. Water-in-oil-in-water emulsions replace some of the fat molecules with water molecules. In the hetero-aggregation process, oil droplets get coated with emulsifiers of opposite charges. They mix together to create a product with high viscosity and low fat.