Premium
Development and Application of a Rheological Method to Investigate Crystallization of Palm Oil
Author(s) -
Moelants Katlijn R. N.,
Smith Paul R.,
Lipkie Tristan E.,
Steinbach Adam J.,
Leyva Gerardo,
Süverkrüp Fenja C. H.,
Wallecan Joël R.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1002/aocs.12253
Subject(s) - crystallization , nucleation , structuring , rheology , palm oil , materials science , shear (geology) , work (physics) , shear rate , chemical engineering , process engineering , chemical physics , biological system , mechanical engineering , composite material , thermodynamics , chemistry , food science , physics , engineering , business , finance , biology
Structuring of fatty products is important in producing palatable food products. Saturated fat (SAFA) crystals are needed to bring structure to many products (such as bakery or confectionery). In a product control of the structure by fat nucleation and crystallization, it is important to deliver the correct performance. Many techniques only work on quiescent systems and give limited information about the sheared systems that are generally found in industrial production of products. This article presents a novel rheological technique that can be used to probe crystallization and network structure under sheared conditions. The results show that crystallization of palm oil can be divided into different key stages. These result from initial nucleation, structuring by the crystals, polymorphic transformation, further structure building, and then subsequent relaxation. Significant postcrystallization (sintering) events occur over at least a day. It is seen that the shear rate leads to possibilities for crystallization control. Higher shear gives a reduction in network strength (as measured by G′) of the initial crystal network. However, after longer posthardening, results are very similar. This work enables the development of a fast tool that can be used to monitor structure formation in fats and reveals the relative importance of the nucleation–crystallization and postcrystallization events in sheared systems.