Rheological and Microscopic Properties of Fat Blends with Similar Solid Fat Content but Different Trans Composition

In this study, two different groups of fat samples were prepared in a way that samples of each group had different trans fatty acid (TFA) composition but similar solid fat content (SFC). Samples of the first group (named group A) had TFA between 0.0 and 56.23 %, while the samples of the second group (group B) contained trans isomers ranging from 0.0 to 44.4 %. A polarized microscope was used to monitor the differences between the samples in terms of crystal size and crystal number during isothermal crystallization. In general, increasing TFA resulted in formation of larger crystals in a shorter time. Similar findings were also observed when small deformation time and frequency sweep experiments were conducted. A higher TFA content led to higher complex modulus values during isothermal crystallization. On the other hand, when the samples were stored at 4 degrees C for 48 h, the samples with the lower trans isomer had higher hardness values.