Applied Studies on Application of Capric/Caprylic MCT Oils in Food Industries

Non healthy oils & fats consumption in foods is the major reason of obesity in human beings.

Common cooking oils & fats are composed of medium and long chain triglycerides. Each triglyceride consist of fatty acids called medium and long chain fatty acids abbreviated as (MCFAs & LCFAs). The ratio of LCFAs is mostly higher than the MCFAs in common cooking oils to be to be suitable for heat stress applications like cooking and frying. On the other side there is natural dietary fats are rich in Medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) like coconut oil and dairy fats. Also there are synthetic medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oils which are synthetized by a processes called fractionation that extracts the MCFAs as caprylic and capric acid from the other fatty acids in the coconut or palm kernel oil.

The MCFAs, shows substantial metabolic advantage compared to LCFAs. MCFAs are a preferred source of energy (b-oxidation). The last 20 years studies confirmed the potential of MCFAs to reduce body weight and may reduce fasting lipid levels more than oils rich in LCFAs. The same is true for glucose levels.

In this study, the authors did chemical and instrumental studies on dietary structured MLCT and non-structured MCT/LCT cooking oils which were used for producing for weight reduction and obesity control purpose Capric /caprylic MCT oil was used as a source of MCFAs for producing of novel. Different sources of long-chain triglycerides (LCFAs) have been used including sunflower oil (SFO), Canola oil(CNO), high oleic sunflower oil (HOSFO), palm oil (PO) and double fractionated palm olein (DFOlein).

The following techniques have been used for preparation of structured and non structured cooking oils in this study :

1-Physical blending.

2 - Chemical interesterification in a multipurpose batch reactor.

2- Enzymatic interesterification using immobilized Lipase enzyme in pilot scale packed bed reactor (PBR).

Different analytical and instrumental techniques were used in this study including Gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), Rancimate, and smoke point tester.

The study shown that the non-structured MCT/LCT oils gave reasonable heat stability, higher smoke points compared the structured MLCT oil which make it more suitable for cooking and frying applications.

The chemical and enzymatic interesterification (CIE & EIE) technique yield a real structured MLCT oil which is more effective in caloric reduction and obesity control purpose during long term consumption in dietary foods, however, due to its much lower smoke point compared to its relative LCFAs oil so it will be suitable only for cold applications like salad dressing and other culinary applications. But not suitable for heat stress applications like deep or shallow frying.