Monoglycerides are among the most promising polar lipid compounds able to bring new or improved functionalities to foods since they can form self-assembly structures. In particular, saturated monoglycerides, once added to oils, have the ability to form networks entrapping oil and creating viscoelastic materials. The resulting systems are called organogel that are self-standing, thermoreversible, anhydrous, viscoelastic materials structured by a three dimensional supramolecolar network of self-assembled molecules with limited solubility in organic liquids (1). In recent years, a number of different applications have been proposed for organogels, such as saturated fat substitution, oil migration inhibitor, vehicles for delivery and protection of lipophilic bioactives (2).
In the attempt to use organogels in food formulations, it appears essential to know how the newly formed structures affect the stability of lipophilic substances. As reported by Da Pieve et al. (3), the oil structuring in organogels resulted quite ineffective in slowing down the first steps of oxidation reactions (formation of hydroperoxides), but significantly reducte secondary product
The aim of the present research was to study the kinetics of omega-3 rich oil and the stability of α-tocopherol when the oil was structured in organogel by saturated monoglycerides in comparison to the liquid bulk oil.
