1/7/2005 Food Ingredient News - Premium Vegetable Oils Sdn Bhd, aMalaysian specialty fats manufacturer, has developed a trans freestructural fat that is suitable as a margarine blend for the manufactureof fatty acid poly- and mono-unsaturated margarines.

The company's method departs from conventional manufacturing techniquesthat formulate structural fats from hard stocks derived hydrogenatedliquid vegetable oils. It makes the fat from selectively fractionatednon-hydrogenated high melting palm oil that has been interesterified withdry palm kernel or other lauric fat. The structural fat's liquid oilcontent ranges from 60% to 95%, while its hard fat component makes up thebalance of the formulation. The hard fat component has a C16 carbon chainresidue greater than 70%, a solid fat content or over 75% at 40(C, and amelting point of 57(C. The high melting point enables the component to beflaked easily, in spite of not being required to undergo hydrogenation.

Neither hydrogenation nor organic solvent or detergent (for fractionation)is used with the method, granted U.S. 6,808,737. The method results inhigh yield ratios of the trans free structural fat. It affords margarinemanufacturers an economical and commercially viable way to makemargarines, spreads, and/or blends of the two. If desired, the method isamenable to substituting canola, soybean, peanut, rice bran, olive,safflower, sunflower, corn, and marine oils for the palm oil or blendingthem with it, according to S.P. Ullanoormadam, chemist.

The hard palm oil fraction is produced with a two-step meltcrystallization process. The palm oil is crystallized at 20(C to 25(C, andthen the crystallized slurry is filtered through a high- pressure membraneat about 10 to 35 bar. The same two steps are repeated whether very hardor medium hard fractions are made. The fractions are cooled and the slabis hydraulically pressed.

Contact: S.P. Ullanoormadam, Chemist, Premium Vegetable Oils Sdn Bhd,Wisma Tun Sambathan, Penthouse, Level 27, Jalan Sultan Sulaiman, 5