Characterization and Oxidative Stability of Human Milk Fat Substitutes Enzymatically Produced from Palm Stearin

Production of human milk fat substitutes (HMFSs) from three types of palm stearin with palmitic acid (PA) of 91.3, 70.3 and 62.6 %, respectively, was scaled up to a kilogram scale. The physiochemical properties of these products including fatty acid profiles, triacylglycerol compositions, tocopherol contents, oxidative stability and melting and crystallization profiles were compared with those of HMFSs from lard, butterfat and tripalmitin and fats from infant formulas. Based on their chemical compositions, HMFSs from palm stearin with PA contents of 70.3 and 62.6 % produced by enzymatic acidolysis were found to have the highest degree of similarity to human milk fat, which indicated that these HMFSs were the most suitable for use in infant formulas. However, HMFSs from palm stearin with PA content of 91.3 % had the highest tocopherol contents. By investigation of the primary and secondary oxidation products during accelerated oxidation, the oxidative stability of HMFSs was found to be positively correlated to the contents of tocopherols, and the volatile oxidation compounds with the highest relative contents in HMFSs were aldehydes analyzed by solid-phase microextraction-GC–MS. All HMFSs had final melting points lower than body temperature.