Effect of animal fats on the physical properties of palm fat

Palm fat is one of the most commonly used fats in food industry. The main role of palm fat is to develop the desired texture of food products. Fat blends were developed to find the most appropriate mixture fitting the technological needs. In our work palm mid fraction (PMF) was mixed with anhydrous milk fat (AMF), goose fat (G), and lard (L) in a 1:1 ratio. Anhydrous milk fat represents fat consisting of a wide range of fatty acids. Goose fat is a soft, easily melting fat, and lard is characterized as animal fat with wide melting temperature interval. The measurements aimed to establish the miscibility of the fats and the effect of animal fats on the melting-solidification profile of palm mid fraction. SFC vs temperature curves, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) melting thermograms describe the melting profile of the samples. Isotherm crystallization by SFC vs time curves and DSC cooling thermograms were measured to characterize the solidification of pure fats and the blends. Since the SFC curves did not show crosspoints we concluded that fats blended in a 1:1 ratio were miscible. Anhydrous milk fat strongly modified the properties of palm mid fraction, the blend became similar to anhydrous milk fat. Goose fat had no strong modification effect on palm mid fraction and could be considered as a softening agent. The effect of lard was complex: melting and solidification behaviour of the blend differed from the characteristics of both parent fats