Recent advances on food-grade oleogels: Fabrication, application and research trends

Abstract

In order to improve the nutritional and quality characteristics of food, solid fats are widely used in food formulations. With the continuous improvement of consumers' awareness of health in recent years, substantial attempts have been carried out to find substitutes for solid fats to reduce saturated fatty acid content in foods. Oleogels have drawn increasing attention due to their attractive advantages such as easy fabrication, superior fatty acid composition and safe use in food products to satisfy consumers’ demands for healthy products. This review provides the latest information on the diversified oleogel systems. The feasibility of oleogel and oleogel-based system as nutraceutical vehicles is elucidated. The type as well as concentration of oleogelators and the synergistic effect between two or more oleogelators are important factors affecting the properties of obtained oleogel. Oleogels used in nutraceutical delivery have been shown to offer increased loading amount, enhanced bioaccessibility and targeted or controlled release. These nutrients wrapped in oleogels may in turn affect the formation and properties of oleogels. Furthermore, the future perspectives of oleogels are discussed. The feasible research trends of food-grade oleogel include oleogel-based solid lipid particle, essential oil-in-oleogel system, delivery of probiotics, nutraceuticals co-delivery and microencapsulated oleogel.

Keywords:

• Edible oleogel
• multicomponent oleogelators
• novel nutraceutical vehicle
• food applications
• unsaturated fat

Author contributions

W. Zhao collected literature and drafted the manuscript. Z. Wei conceptualized the idea, drafted the outline, gave a guide to professional knowledge, edited and revised the article. C. Xue revised the article. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest and no competing financial interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the startup fund from Ocean University of China (grant No. 862001013134). This work was also funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant No. 2018YFC0311201).