Sensory evaluation of butterfat-vegetable oil blend spread prepared with structured lipid containing canola oil and caprylic acid

Abstract

Structured lipid (SL) was synthesized from canola oil and caprylic acid with sn-1,3 specific lipase from Rhizomucor miehei. Cold-spreadable butter was made by blending butterfat with the SL at a weight ratio of 80:20. Its sensory attributes were compared with pure butter and butterfat-canola oil 80:20 blend spread by headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) procedure and sensory analyses (descriptive analysis and triangle test) to determine the effect of the SL on the sensory profiles of the spread. Butterfat-SL blend had significantly (P < 0.05) lower contents of hypercholesterolemic fatty acids (FAs) and the lowest atherogenic index (AI) compared with the others. In the volatile compounds analysis, free caprylic acid was detected in the butterfat-SL blend spread only. Descriptive analysis results indicated that butterfat-SL blend spread was significantly (P < 0.05) more cold-spreadable than pure butter, whereas its overall textural profile was very similar to that of butterfat-canola oil blend spread. However, no significant (P < 0.05) differences were found between all the spread samples in the flavor attributes including caprylic acid flavor. Triangle test results also showed that significant (P < 0.001) difference was found in cold-spreadability between pure butter and butterfat-SL blend spread, but there was no significant (P < 0.05) difference between butterfat-canola oil blend spread and butterfat-SL blend spread. Our results indicate that SL can counterbalance the hypercholester-olemic attributes of butterfat as well as improve the cold-spreadability of the experimental spread without any adverse effect on the flavor attributes of the spread. © 2005 Institute of Food Technologists.