High-oleic soybean shortenings target icings, donuts, tortillas: IFT 2019 report

Photo by Evan-Amos/Wikimedia Commons

Bunge Loders Croklaan (St. Louis) introduced its new Vream specialty shortenings for icings, donuts, and tortillas at the Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo in June. For food manufacturers, the new shortenings offer performance comparable to partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) but with the health benefits of soy and high-oleic soybean oil.

At IFT, Mark Stavro, senior director of marketing, explained that formulators often struggle with sensory and functionality challenges when working with the limited range of non-PHO shortenings currently available for icings, donuts, and tortillas. For instance, “one of the biggest challenges with icings is that they would harden,” he said. “The newer icings made without the PHOs would harden a little bit more.” Also, he said, the color of the icings would not be as “bright white” as icings made with PHOs would be. With donuts, he said, glazes made with alternative shortenings may have trouble adhering to the donut, or would crack. And tortillas made with alternative shortenings also might crack, tear, and be less supple than needed.

Stavro said that with the new Vream shortening line, the company looked to overcome all of these challenges, as well as to eliminate unwanted textures like the waxy mouthfeel and slow melt common with other shortenings. He said: “High-oleic soy was one of the key ingredients, and then we combined that with our soy-based structuring fats because you want to get some solid structure in there as well. By using the high-oleic soy, we saw better melt. It’s a much more stable oil, so that can reduce oxidation, off flavors. And then in terms of colors, it’s bright white, and that’s really because of the key ingredient, the high-oleic soy.”