Design of Roll-In Margarine Analogous by Partial Drying of Monoglyceride-Structured Emulsions

A novel process is proposed to turn soft gelled emulsions containing saturated monoglyceride (MG), sunflower oil, and water into a fat material with the typical water content (20 g/100 g) and rheological properties of roll-in margarine. A gentle drying procedure at 30 °C is proposed to allow partial water removal from the emulsions, without causing phase separation. Upon water removal, the soft emulsion, initially stabilized by a highly hydrated liquid crystalline lamellar phase of MG, converts into a high internal phase oil–water emulsion (HIPE) stabilized thanks to the presence of MG crystals around gelled oil particles, which are interconnected via polar groups of MG. HIPE at the highest MG content (13.7 g/100 g) shows rheological properties (Gʹ = 4.6 × 105 Pa, critical stress = 634 Pa) comparable to those of commercial roll-in margarine and is successfully used in baking trials of puff pastry. Practical Applications: The last years have seen an increasing demand for strategies for the nutritional improvement of lipid-containing foods, due to the emerging health concern related to the consumption of unbalanced saturate/unsaturated fats. Moreover, sustainability issues have arisen due to the abundant use of tropical fats in foods. However, the unique technological and sensory properties of fats make this task very challenging, especially considering the production of laminated products requiring the use of plastic fat materials with peculiar rheological properties. The results obtained in this study are very promising, as they show that the novel fat can be used as an alternative to traditional laminating margarine.