Technical aspects of trans reduction in margarines

The opinion of nutritional science on the effect of trans fatty acids on blood cholesterol has drastically changed during the last decade. As a reaction to these new findings, the European margarine industry decided in the mid nineties to eliminate trans containing components from their margarine fat phase compositions. This excluded practically the use of partially hydrogenated oils and fats. Trans-free margarines have been introduced with optimised fat crystal structures stabilising a maximum of water in oil emulsion with a minimum of solid fat phase. These fat crystal structures are formed by fat phase components obtained from interesterification and/or fractionation of non-hydrogenated and/or fully hydrogenated feedstocks.