2021 AOCS Fellow Award Lecture

2021 AOCS Fellow Award Lecture presented by Dr. Silvana Martini. The presentation will be livestreamed at https://annualmeeting.aocs.org/watch-the-livestream


Sonocrystallization of fats: Considerations for industrial applications

The elimination of partially hydrogenated oils from food formulations and the reduction of saturated fatty acids has challenged food producers to generate appropriate physical properties in healthier fats. High-intensity ultrasound (HIU) has been used over the past 15 years as an additional processing tool to improve the physical properties of fats. Studies showed that this technique is very helpful to process healthy fats that have a low level of saturated fatty acids and that crystallize slowly.

Increase in crystallization rate, hardness, elasticity, and reduction in crystal size and oil migration, are some of the common physical properties that can be obtained in sonocrystallized fats. The degree of change in these physical properties is highly dependent on various processing conditions such as a chemical composition of the material, degree of agitation of the sample, heat transfer and removal of heat generated during sonication, and crystallization kinetics of the sample.

Many experiments related to the sonocrystallization of edible fats have been performed in batch proving the benefits of this technology, but only a few have shown the practical application of HIU in continuous systems similar to the ones used in industrial settings. This presentation will describe how processing conditions affect the outcomes of the sonocrystallization process. Strengths and limitations of HIU to process edible fats and the incorporation of this technology in a scraped surface heat exchanger will be discussed.

Overall, this presentation will describe important concepts that must be considered when evaluating the potential use of HIU in industrial applications.