Development of innovative ethyl cellulose-hydroxypropyl methylcellulose biopolymer oleogels as low saturation fat replacers: Physical, rheological and microstructural characteristics.

Abstract Oleogelation of sunflower oil and sunflower oil/palm stearin blends based on ethyl cellulose (EC), and mixture of EC/hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) was done using a heuristic method (without emulsion preparation). Similarly, in the samples, monoacylglycerols (MAG) was used as surfactant and Arabic gum was employed as the thickening agent. Summarily, the presence of solid fat content (SFC) in the samples was due to the use of 2% MAG, which SFC was increased by raising the biopolymers concentration due to the increased MAG-to-oil ratio. In general, by increasing biopolymers concentrations, we observed a significant increase in slip melting point (SMP) (p