Assessment of safety and tolerability of hybrid gel oral administration in an experiment on Wistar rats

Due to the negative health effects such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, the consumers avoid foods high in saturated fatty acids. For this reason, one of the main goals of the food industry is to develop the substitutes for solid fats rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Recent studies have shown that oleogels can successfully replace saturated fats in various foods such as cakes, biscuits, meat products, chocolate and ice cream. We have developed a hybrid gel in which oleogel is made up from the composition of hydrogel and oleogel in a ratio of 5:95. The hydrogel is obtained from a 2 % solution of sodium alginate in combination with oleogel made from grape seed oil and beeswax in a concentration of 20 %. The safety assessment of the food hybrid gel was carried out on laboratory animals (linear Wistar rats). The animals were split into three groups to conduct the research. The rats of the first group got per oral injection with the gel being researched at a dose of 1 g of hybrid gel / kg of rat weight, the second group received three-fold increased dose — 3 g of hybrid gel / kg of rat weight for 30 days, the third control group was fed with a standard diet. Based on the results obtained, the safety and tolerability of oral administration of an edible hybrid gel based on oleogel made up from beeswax in Wistar rats was defined. The prospects for creating edible hybrid gels with oleogel from beeswax seem promising, as they solve current dietary and health issues while providing functional and sensory benefits in food formulations.