The Research On The Whey Protein-based Fat Replacers

Along with the society's development, people's attitude towards consumption and the values changes continually. Fat content in food receives increasing attention from people. Excessive consumption of fat may lead to many health problems, which led to appearance of fat replacers. Whey protein-based fat replacers research first began in 1980. Research in this area in China is in its infancy. Whey protein can be made into fat replacers because of its gelling properties. When they were microparticulated, 50% of particle size is about 10μm in diameter. They may have the similar fat thickness and the slippery soapy feeling. Fat replacers were applied to ice-cream. The fat replacers include native and enzyme hydrolysed whey protein-based.Firstly, we studied several rheological properties of whey protein and confirmed the preparation method of fat replacers. WPC-80 as raw material and pH 7.0 were chosen. The concentration of WPC-80 was 0.10 g/mL,the concentration of CaCl2 was 0.003 g/mL,the concentration of Xanthan was 0.005 g/mL and the temperature of heating was 80℃.Secondly, we studied the enzyme hydrolysed whey protein-based fat replacers. The fat replacer based on WPC-80 of different degrees of hydrolysis (DH) were obtained from the whey protein by hydrolysis with Alcalase 2.4L to produce semisolid fat imitations to be used as fat replacers. The hardness, fracturability, gumminess and chewiness of fat replacers reduced basically as DH increased. With increasing DH, the Viscosity and the light (L) of the fat replacers reduced, while the yellow increased. The texture profile analysis (TPA) of control was similar with white creamer and the TPA of DH 3% was similar with hydrogenated palm oil.During fat replacer preparation, we examined the size distribution. In whey protein solution, 50% of particle size is smaller than 133.2μm in diameter. After gel formation the, fifty percent of particle became smaller than 334.9μm. The particles become smaller when they were microparticulated in 15 minutes. Fifty percent of particle size was about 10μm. During the preparation fat replacers, we examined the microstructure of whey protein by scanning electron microscope (SEM). In whey protein solution, whey protein particles evenly dispersed and the particle size was small. After heat treatment, whey protein inflat, and they formed the gel. The surface of them is rough and unable to simulate the slippery feeling. After microparticulation, the surface of protein gels became smooth and soft. They could be used as fat replacers.