| Summary: | Water-in-Oil emulsions present a potential strategy for fat reduction in conventional baking margarine (and thereupon bakery products), by replacing a portion of the fat with a water-based fat mimetic. Using hydrocolloids, polymers, and stabilisers, this aqueous phase may be structured in such a way as to emulate the physical and mechanical behaviour of the fat, but with almost none of the associated energy contribution - presenting potential for a realistic, marketable solution towards weight management and calorie control. This work has adopted a holistic strategy in order to characterise and understand the various structural components and processes consolidating to form a final, optimized, baking margarine emulsion structure. The relationship between the microstructure and the physicomechanical properties of standalone structured aqueous hydrocolloid phases is studied, and modelled for more complex systems. Emulsification processing parameters were optimized for production of water in palm oil baking margarine emulsions, before then applying these learnings for successful formulation of reduced fat palm oil emulsions incorporating the structured aqueous phase. A conventional margarine process is optimised for a contemporary role of emulsification to successfully create fully emulsified 30% reduced fat baking margarine emulsions, with potential for considerably higher aqueous phase fractions depending upon particular baking application.
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