Solutions for total and saturated fat reduction in fat-based fillings for bakery products

The extensive global lockdowns and movement restrictions that ensued following the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 brought about a chain reaction that affected people’s eating habits and ultimately their health.

Concerns of food shortages shrouded many people’s thoughts and hence translated to the higher consumption of packaged and long-life food rather than fresh food. The generally higher contents of salt, sugar, or fats in packaged food have led the people towards an unhealthy diet. Staying at home can also bring about a severe impact on lifestyle habits. It has restricted social activities and limited most physical activities such as outdoor exercise. As a result, most people experience weight gain and are affected with several metabolic effects that would increase cardiovascular risk¹.

The dwindling economic situation across the world isn’t helping either, with more people understandably choosing to spend less, which meant the consumption of more unhealthy foods as they are generally less expensive. This may cause a rise in obesity prevalence¹².

Obesity is defined as an abnormal or excessive amount of body fat and is a leading risk factor for death, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and various types of cancer¹⁷. Globally, 8% of deaths were the result of obesity, and many middle countries particularly across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa, and Latin America showed more than 15% of deaths attributed to obesity in 2017⁹.

How Saturated Fat Affects our Health

Saturated fat is one of the most controversial fats around. Eating a diet high in saturated and trans fats may lead to the risk of obesity⁴ along with health complications such as heart disease and related conditions, such as atherosclerosis¹⁵. A growing body of scientific research also backs up that those people who reduced saturated fatty acid (SFA) in their diet resulted in a 21% reduction in cardiovascular events compared to those with higher saturated fatty acid intake¹⁰.

Fat-based Fillings for Bakery Products

Today, bakery products have gained popularity among various cross sections of the population due to increased demand for convenient food¹¹. Biscuits or cookies are among the bakery products that are heavily marketed today, particularly layered biscuits with a creamy filling that can provide a desirable mouth feel. These fillings are usually included with a fat ingredient such as saturated fats to provide sufficient firmness, a nice melting, and flavour release¹³.

A study by Da Silva et al. (2021)⁷ reported that cookie fillings contain on average from 60% to 80% sugar and from 22% to 32% total fats while a study by Amrutha Kala (2014)³ showed that total fat in cream biscuits are composed of 0.8 to 1.5g/100g trans fatty acids (TFA) and 7.5 to 18.5g/100g saturated fatty acids (SFA).

Inulin: The Ideal Fat Replacer

The growing awareness of health concerns linked to the ingredients used in bakery products is driving the market further¹⁴. A consumer survey by FoodInsight (IFIC) also revealed that 44% of consumers limit their total fat intake while 63% of consumers reported they are trying to limit saturated fat intake at least some of the time⁸.

Inulin is a dietary fibre that is naturally found in chicory plants and has a sugar-like relative sweetness².  Owing to its mildly sweet taste and creamy texture, inulin can replace part of the sugar or fat content without major changes in the production processes. In addition, their good dispersible powder makes it easy to incorporate into moist or semi-moist food categories as a fat replacer^5,6. Moreover, it can make water stable and give a creamy form fat-like texture. As a result, inulin enhances the body and mouthfeel of low-fat foods while also providing a superb flavour release⁵.

According to trial recipes done by BENEO, a worldwide leader in plant-based functional ingredients, inulin can reduce 30% of total fat and 50% of saturated fatty acid with no significant differences in mouthfeel, texture, and taste¹⁸.

Rice Starch: Great for Mimicking Fat’s Texture

Another brilliant ingredient that can be used in bakery fillings to reduce fat is rice starch. Rice starch has a small granule size of 2–8 μm which is similar to the size of fat globules. Thus, it perfectly mimics a full-fat body mouthfeel and gives a creamy texture as well as serves as a natural fat replacer^5,6. This is also supported by a trial recipe done by BENEO where fat-based fillings incorporated with rice starch have seen reduction of 20% of total fat and 45% of saturated fatty acid while maintaining a pleasant texture and taste¹⁸.

In A Nutshell

Finding a balance between health and indulgence is important nowadays. Reducing total and saturated fat by incorporating a low‐fat ingredient has emerged as one of the strategies to improve better nutrition and health. At DPO International, we are honoured to be in partnership with BENEO to bring you a range of ingredients that will elevate the quality of your bakery products.

References

¹Alshahrani, S. M., Alghannam, A. F., Taha, N., Alqahtani, S. S., Al-Mutairi, A., Al-Saud, N., & Alghnam, S. (2022). The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on weight and body mass index in Saudi Arabia: A longitudinal study. Frontiers In Public Health, 9, 775022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.775022

²Amrita, B. and Jayabalan, R. (2019). Functional and technological properties of probiotics and prebiotics.  Food Bioactives, pp. 213–242. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429242793-10

³Amrutha Kala, A. L. (2014). Studies on saturated and trans fatty acids composition of few commercial brands of biscuits sold in Indian market. Journal of Food Science And Technology, 51(11), 3520–3526. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-014-1421-8

⁴Astrup, A., Magkos, F., Bier, D. M., Brenna, J. T., de Oliveira Otto, M. C., Hill, J. O., …& Krauss, R. M. (2020). Saturated Fats and Health: A Reassessment and Proposal for Food-based Recommendations: JACC State-of -the-Art Review. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.05.077

⁵Beneo. (2018). Matching today’s expectations. Functional fibres for better nutrition. https://www.food.be/sites/food/files/companies/0012000000RYYCHAA5/01257000000VEN0AAO/BENEO_Brochure_Functional_Fibres_2016.pdf

⁶Colla, K., Costanzo, A., & Gamlath, S. (2018). Fat Replacers in Baked Food Products. Foods, 7(12), 192. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods7120192  

⁷Da Silva, T. L. T., Fernandes, G. D., & Arellano, D. B. (2021). Development of reduced saturated fat cookie fillings using multicomponent oleogels. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society. https://doi.org/10.1002/aocs.12527

⁸FoodInsight. (2020). Consumer Survey: Purchasing Behaviors, Eating Decisions and Health Perceptions of Dietary Fats and Oils. https://foodinsight.org/consumer-survey-purchasing-behaviors-eating-decisions-and-health-perceptions-of-dietary-fats-and-oils/

⁹Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (GBD 2019) Results. Seattle, United States: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2021. Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network.

⁹Hannah, Ritchie., & Max, Roser. (2017). Obesity. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/obesity

¹⁰Hooper, L., Martin, N., Jimoh, O. F., Kirk, C., Foster, E., & Abdelhamid, A. S. (2020). Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd011737.pub2

¹¹Kathane, M. and Sharma, R. (2017). Purchasing pattern of bakery products among working and non-working women in Central India: Effect of socio-economic factors. Ukrainian Food Journal, 6(2), 365–378. https://doi.org/10.24263/2304-974x-2017-6-2-16

¹²Mattioli, A. V., Sciomer, S., Cocchi, C., Maffei, S., & Gallina, S. (2020). Quarantine during COVID-19 outbreak: changes in diet and physical activity increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease, 30(9), 1409–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2020.05.020 

¹³Rabault, J. L. & Belouin, F. (November 23, 2021). Filling For A Bakery Or Chocolate Product. U.S. Patent Application No. US011178886B2. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patents.google.com/patent/US11178886B2/en

¹⁴Research and Markets. (2021). Global Bakery Products Market Analysis and Forecast Report 2021: Market to Reach a Value of Almost $436.91 Billion by 2026, from $331.37 Billion in 2020. Industry Report.

¹⁵Sacks, F. M., Lichtenstein, A. H., Wu, J. H. Y., Appel, L. J., Creager, M. A., Kris-Etherton, P. M., Miller, M., Rimm, E. B., Rudel, L. L., Robinson, J. G., Stone, N. J., & Van Horn, L. V. on behalf of the American Heart Association. (2017). Dietary fats and cardiovascular disease: a presidential advisory from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 136, e1-e23. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000510

¹⁶WHO. (2020). Listings of WHO’s Response to COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-06-2020-covidtimeline  (cited June 29, 2020).

¹⁷WHO. (2021). Fact sheet – Obesity and overweight. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight  (cited June 9, 2021).

¹⁸Beneo. (2020). BENEO Solutions_Bakery_Fat reduction in fat-based filling_SNP 2020.