Random interesterification of fat blends with alkali catalysts

Random interestification of fat blends, composed from vegetable oil and fully hydrogenated vegetable oil, catalyzed by sodium hydroxide and sodium methoxide, has been investigated. Sodium methoxide was used as a reference catalyst to evaluate the influence and the catalytic efficiency of NaOH on interesterification. Sodium hydroxide was found to be a suitable catalyst for this purpose. The choice of methods suitable for the investigation of interesterification reactions and characterization of the initial fat blends and their interesterified products is described. The randomization was followed by the changes in the triacylglycerol (TAG) composition of the fat blends determined by HPLC and high temperature GLC. This triacylglycerol composition of the original blends and the randomized products with the physical properties such as melting behaviour, crystallization and solid fat content were compared. The results show that the randomization of vegetable oil ‐ fully hydrogenated vegetable oil fat blends in various ratios can be used to produce fats with desired physical and nutritional properties.