Formulation of trans-free margarines using hydrogenated and interesterified palm olein

Palm olein (pol) was studied as a material for the formulation of trans-free margarines (tfm) having less than 1% of trans fatty acid content. to achieve this aim,hydrogenation and interesterification reactions were performed using pol to obtain fats having desirable melting properties. samples from the early stages of hydrogenation and after interesterification were analysed for their melting behaviour and trans contents. during hydrogenation,the iodine value of pol was reduced from 55.2 to 46.0 while trans fatty acid (tfa) content and slip melting point (smp) increased from 0% to 7.15% and from 24.0°c to 37.8°c,respectively. the results show that slightly hydrogenated pol had low trans content and appropriate melting ranges for tfm formulations. interesterification increased both smp and solid fat contents (sfc) at all measuring temperatures. in conclusion,a combination of pol and its hydrogenated and interesterified forms within certain ranges can be used for the preparation of trans-free base stocks for stick type margarines. the optimum ranges were determined as 40%-50% for interesterified,10%-30% for hydrogenated and 30%-40% for natural pol.