Reduce fat in confectionery fillings with maltodextrin, says researchers
Writing in the journal LWT – Food Science and Technology, Hadnađeva et al. said that potato maltodextrin and specially derived waxy-maize maltodextrin aqueous gels could cut fat content up to 25%.
The challenge
Confectionery fillings tend to contain around 30-40 g of fat per 100 g. “Due to the high fat content, they have considerable high caloric value. Therefore, there is a trend to decrease fat content in confectionery filling formulations,” said the researchers.
The researchers said fat replacement of confectionery fillings had been challenging due to their complex makeup of sugar, cocoa, milk powder particles and other ingredients suspended in fat continuous phase.
In their study, they explored the possibility of maltodextrin, which has been used as a fat replacer in food products such as yoghurts and spreads.
Method
Hadnađeva et al. replaced 30 g/100 g of vegetable fat in a confectionery filling with different vegetable fat and maltodextrin gel blends. It tested fillings with 5, 10 and 15 g fat reduction against a control with full fat.
An untrained panel of 68 consumers found that the reduced fat filings were not significantly different from the full fat filling. Reducing the fat did increase the hardness and change the color, but the final product was still deemed acceptable by the panel. The 5 g fat replacement was deemed the most acceptable by the consumers.
Source:
LWT – Food Science and Technology
DOI: 10.1016/j.lwt.2014.04.044
‘Physical and sensory aspects of maltodextrin gel addition used as fat replacers in confectionery filling systems’
Authors: Hadnađeva et al.
