How Texture and Preference are Affected by Replacing Regular Margarine with Smart Balance in Oatmeal Cookies

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1 Courtney Cleveland F&N /21/05 How Texture and Preference are Affected by Replacing Regular Margarine with Smart Balance in Oatmeal Cookies Abstract There is now a lot of concern with consuming foods that contains trans-fats which are in fats that have been hydrogenated. Trans-fats have been found to cause negative health effects such as raising the LDL cholesterol and lowering the HDL cholesterol. It is difficult to find products that are non-hydrogenated while being equal functionally and economically to hydrogenated fats (Talbot, 2004). One of the new trans-free fats is called Smart Balance. Since this is a relatively new product, not a lot of people may realize that they can substitute Smart Balance for butter or margarine in cooking and baking. Research studies are lacking in the area of how texture and preference of baked goods are affected by using Smart Balance. This study examined these two areas using cookies, 1 batch made with margarine and 1 with Smart Balance. The experiment was conducted 3 times. The water activity machine and texture analyzer was used to analyze texture and a taste panel of 15 people ranked the cookies on the Hedonic Scale and made comments about why they picked this rating. The taste panel reported similar results with the preference of the cookies. The majority of people like both cookies or. It basically depended on whether a softer cookie or a crisper cookie is preferred. The cookie made with Smart Balance was softer than the cookie made with margarine. Greater force was required to break the cookie made with margarine than with Smart Balance. Smart Balance produced a cookie that was preferred equally to a cookie made with margarine. This finding is good for the future of baking with healthier products such as Smart Balance which provide no trans fats and, therefore, reduce the risk for future health problems. Introduction Studies have recently found that trans fats, which are in products such as hardened fats like margarine, have been linked to many negative health problems. Trans fat has been linked to raising LDL cholesterol and lowering HDL cholesterol, increases blood insulin levels in humans in response to glucose load, affects immune response, decreases the response of the red blood cell to insulin, inhibits the function of membrane-related enzymes, causes alterations in physiological properties of biological membranes, and causes alterations in adipose cell size, cell number, lipid class, and fatty acid composition. People have been working on developing products without trans fats that have equal taste and functionality while still being affordable for consumers. One of the new trans free fats is called Smart Balance. This product is a blend of natural vegetable oils that was created to improve the cholesterol ratio. Smart Balance has no hydrogenation and no trans fats but has a good balance of fats for our diet. It uses palm fruit, soybean, canola seed, and olive oils which provides this healthy balance of fats to help sustain HDL cholesterol. Palm oil has been studied and has been not found to raise the levels of blood cholesterol. Palm oil has anti-thrombotic effect, contains a safe level of linoleic acid, and does not contain trans fatty acid isomers found in hydrogenated fats (Bhattacharyya, DK, Majumdar, S, Roy, S, Basu, R., 1987). This product would be good for eone to use instead of butter or margarine.

2 In this experiment, three trials were completed. In each trial, one batch of cookies was made using the normal recipe with margarine and one batch was made replacing the margarine with Smart Balance. All other variables were kept the same. The independent variables in this experiment were the margarine and butter. The dependent variable was texture. Texture of the cookies was analyzed with the texture analyzer and activity of water was measured as well. Methods Ingredients- 200g flour 10ml baking powder 2.5ml salt 5ml ground cinnamon 1 ml ground nutmeg 125g margarine (softened to room temp) 200g brown sugar 120g quick cooking oats (uncooked) 100g eggs (should be about 2 lg eggs) 5ml vanilla extract 5ml almond extract 150g raisins 150g chopped dates 250g chopped pecans 1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in 25 strokes. 2) In a separate bowl, stir margarine in with brown sugar with 50 strokes. 3) Stir dry ingredients into margarine-sugar mixture with 50 strokes. Stir in dry oats and eggs with 25 strokes and add vanilla and almond extracts and stir with 25 strokes. Mix in raisins, dates, pecans with 25 strokes. 4) Drop 30g of dough onto a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam. Bake cookies for 18 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius. Remove cookies and let cool flat on cookie sheet. Do same exact experiment again only using Smart Balance this time in place of margarine. After cookies cooled for 15 minutes, texture analyzer was used with the knife probe. The water activity machine was then used to measure the activity of water. 3 runs were completed on each of the machines for both batches of cookies (see tables 1-6). The cookies were placed separately but next to each other with one set labeled as number 534 (Smart Balance) and the other set numbered as 812 (margarine). The cookies tested by a taste panel of 15 people using the Hedonic Scale (see attached sheets for tallies of results and comments): Check the box which corresponds to how you like cookie number 534: Extremely Neither like nor dislike Extremely.

3 Comments about why you picked this rating: Check the box which corresponds to how you like cookie number 812: Extremely Comments about why you picked this rating: Neither like nor dislike Extremely. The experiment was completed three times. The methods were repeated exactly as described above. Discussion A lot of development studies have been done to figure out exact components of trans-free fats to make a good product similar to hydrogenated fat. Research has been conducted to match the melting curve, crystallization rate, and post-hardening of regular fats with new trans-free fats (Petrauskaite, V, Greyt, W, Kellens, M, Huyghebaert, A. 1998). Matching the melting curves of some hydrogenated fats can be achieved by specific blends of palm oil fractions and sometimes other vegetable oils and fats. One important feature of hydrogenated fats is the way they have early crystallization onset and then a quick crystallization rate. With the palm oil fractions, trans-free fats have been created that have about the same crystallization rate as hydrogenated fats. After the initial solidification of making a food with fat, there is a continuation of hardening. The fats made with palm oil fractions are more likely to harden after manufacturing the food. This has been studied and better products have been developed, however, there is still somewhat more of a post-hardening process in these trans-free fats (Kristott, 2003). The 67% oil Smart Balance in the tub is acceptable for use in baking, cooking, and pan frying, as well as use as a spread (Harris, 2005). A lot of research was done to create this product so it could be used in all these different ways. As mentioned already, the taste panel reported similar results with the preference of the cookies. The majority of people like both cookies or (refer to attached sheets to see comments about the cookies). It basically depended on whether a softer cookie or a crisper cookie is preferred. The cookie made with Smart Balance was softer than the cookie made with margarine (see tables 1-6). The optimal Aw of the oatmeal cookie depends on whether a more soft or crisp cookie is desired. A crisper cookie may need an Aw around 0.4 to 0.6 while a softer cookie may have an Aw of 0.6 to 0.8. An Aw of greater than 0.8 is more prone to spoilage and will have a shorter shelf life. The difference in texture is because of the slight difference in the melting curve, crystallization rate, and post-hardening. There is a slower crystallization onset and crystallization rate in products, such as Smart Balance, that do not contain hydrogenated fats. The texture may have also been affected by the amount of raisins and dates that were in the cookies. Since an exact amount was not measured into each cookie, some cookies may have had more raisins and dates which would give more moisture to the cookie. Greater force was required to break the cookie made with margarine than with Smart Balance (see figures 1-3). Smart Balance produced a cookie that was preferred about equally to a cookie made with

4 margarine. This finding is good for the future of baking with healthier products such as Smart Balance because they provide no trans fats and, therefore, reduce the risk for future health problems. Replacing butter and margarine with Smart Balance is an acceptable substitution and is a good way to go about improving health. More research is needed though to produce a product that is even more similar to hydrogenated products with respect to melting curves, crystallization rates, and post-hardening. Results Trial 1 Table 1. Aw of different samples Aw Table 2. Texture Analyzer of different samples TA Sample Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Avg Sample Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Avg Trial 2 Table 3. Aw of different samples Aw Table 4. Texture Analyzer of different samples TA Sample Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Avg Sample Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Avg Trial 3 Table 5. Aw of different samples Aw Table 6. Texture Analyzer of different samples TA Sample Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Avg Sample Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Avg Trial 1

5 g force-ta margarine Smart Balance 0 Figure 1. Trial g force-aw Grams force vs. Aw g force-ta margarine Smart Balance Figure g force-aw Grams force vs. Aw Trial g force-ta margarine Smart Balance Figure g force-aw Grams force vs. Aw

6 References 1) Talbot, G Trans fats, the means and effects of eliminating them. Food Science & Technology 18(4): ) Bhattacharyya, DK, Majumdar, S, Roy, S, Basu, R Margarines from palm oil and its fractions 42(6): ) Petrauskaite, V, Greyt, W, Kellens, M, Huyghebaert, A Physical and chemical properties of trans-free fats produced by chemical interesterification of vegetable oil blends. Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society 75(4): ) Kristott, J New trans-free fats for the replacement of hydrogenated fats in confectionary products. Britannia Food Ingredients Ltd 13: ) Harris, Bob Smart Balance. Accessed Sept. 22, 2005.