| Monoglycerides |
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| Written by Rick Cavanaugh | |
| Thursday, 09 August 2007 | |
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Ingredient Experts Monoglycerides Monoglycerides are not a single ingredient, but actually a wide variety of ingredients with different specifications and uses. Monoglycerides can be alpha or beta. and can have different fatty acid compositions. Typical usage is for anti-staling or starch complexing in bread. Monoglycerides can also be used as anti-sticking agents in pasta, instant mashed potatoes and cereals. Monoglycerides also function well as emulsion stabilizers in many products such as margarine. Monoglycerides have also been used as fat replacers. Monoglycerides are produced by combining glycerol with a triglyceride fat under specific conditions. This process yields monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, and residual glycerol. The reaction mixture is then purified by removing the triglycerides and the glycerol by distillation. The final product will be 90% monoglycerides. Fully saturated monoglycerides form complexes with the amylose portion of starch, resulting in retardation of starch retro gradation and slowed bread staling. The monoglyceride component also complexes with starch substantially better than the diglycerides. Therefore, to optimize functionality, mono- and diglycerides are concentrated by distillation to produce distilled monoglycerides. This product predominantly contains 90% monoglycerides. Long-chain, saturated fatty acids complex best with starch, leading to the use of stearic acid in the form of GMS as the preferred monoglyceride. Long chain fully saturated monoglycerides are a hard waxy plastic that is not soluble in water. The fully saturated monoglyceride must be hydrated by melting it into water to form a stable alpha gel or it must be blended with a much softer non starch complexing monoglyceride to get the product to "wet out" and become water soluble. The majority of powdered monoglycerides used for bread softening contain only 60% fully saturated monoglyceride (the functional portion) the remaining 40% is a much softer monoglyceride. The softer unsaturated monoglyceride is added to wet out the saturated monoglyceride. Ingredient Experts has a form of powdered monoglyceride that contains 100% functional ingredients it is called Emulsol 220. Monoglycerides in a hydrate form have superior functionality to powdered monoglyceride. The functionality of hydrated monoglyceride is further improved by converting the hydrate into a stable alpha gel form. Monoglycerides are normally insoluble in water. But when heated close to their melting point under specific conditions, they disperse in the water in a bi-layer structure with alternating layers of monoglyceride and water; this is the lamellar phase commonly known as the alpha phase. |
