PALM-ALT (phase 2): Novel palm fat replacer for the food industry

由位于玛格丽特女王大学的苏格兰食品开发与创新中心（SCFDI）领导，PALM-ALT项目旨在为食品行业过度种植棕榈相关的环境问题提供改变游戏规则的解决方案。该项目由Julien Lonchamp领导（QMU食品科学讲师）和Catriona Liddle（SCFDI新产品开发经理），并与行业合作伙伴AAK，Nairn's和Greggs合作进行。由于其独特的脂质成分，使其在室温下呈固体，生产成本低，棕榈油已成为食品行业的主要功能性脂肪成分，包括烘焙行业，其用于其组织化、起酥油、泡沫稳定和起泡性能。然而，由于棕榈过度种植对森林砍伐和气候变化的破坏性环境影响，该行业正在寻找可持续的替代品。除了努力开发更可持续的棕榈种植园外，目前的棕榈脂肪替代战略已经产生了许多商业产品。然而，由于高饱和脂肪含量和反式脂肪酸的存在等与健康相关的问题，它们的影响和扩展受到限制。PALM-ALT解决方案基于可持续成分的新型组合（亚麻籽加工副产物和β-葡聚糖），其在特定条件下加工时能够模拟棕榈脂肪功能，允许用更健康的菜籽油（低饱和脂肪和高多不饱和脂肪）代替它。于二零二零年，该团队完成第一阶段项目，证明该方法的技术可行性。目前的第二阶段项目旨在设计新颖的棕榈脂肪分解器和新颖的无棕榈烘焙应用的原型（糕点、蛋糕、饼干和燕麦蛋糕）的试验规模，并在行业合作伙伴的生产规模上进行测试，以期在项目结束时将产品商业化。PALM-ALT提案旨在通过以下方式为更可持续的食品行业做出重大贡献：* 通过开发更健康的无棕榈油产品，减少对过度种植和进口棕榈油的依赖，这些产品有可能占据功能性配料和烘焙市场的重要部分 *，为行业合作伙伴从COVID中复苏做出贡献-通过这些更健康的新产品的额外市场优势 * 将目前用作动物饲料的亚麻籽加工副产品（从油提取的脱脂亚麻籽粉）开发成高价值成分

Led by the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation (SCFDI) based at Queen Margaret University, the PALM-ALT project aims to provide a game-changing solution to the environmental issues associated with the food industry's dependency on the over-cultivation of palm. The project is led by Julien Lonchamp (lecturer in food science at QMU) and Catriona Liddle (new product development manager at the SCFDI) and is carried out in collaboration with industry partners AAK, Nairn's and Greggs.Due to its unique lipid composition allowing it to be solid at room temperature and its low production costs, palm oil has become the main functional fat ingredient across the food industry, including the bakery sector in which it is used for its texturising, shortening, foam stabilisation and mouthfeel properties. However, due to the devastating environmental impact of palm over-cultivation on deforestation and climate change, the industry is looking for sustainable alternatives. Alongside efforts to develop more sustainable palm cultivation practises, current palm fat replacement strategies have led to a number of commercial products. However their impact and expansion are limited due to health-related concerns including high saturated fat content and the presence of trans fatty acids.The PALM-ALT solution is based on a novel combination of sustainable ingredients (linseed processing co-product and beta-glucan), which when processed in specific conditions is able to mimic palm fat functionality, allowing to replace it with healthier rapeseed oil (low in saturated fat and high in polyunsaturated fat). In 2020 the team completed a phase 1 project which demonstrated the technical feasibility of the approach. This current phase 2 project aims to design prototypes of the novel palm fat replacer and the novel palm-free bakery applications (pastry, cake, biscuit and oatcake) at pilot scale and to test them at manufacturing scale at the industry partners with a view to commercialising the products at the end of the project.The PALM-ALT proposal aims to significantly contribute to a more sustainable food industry by:* reducing its dependency on the over-cultivation and importations of palm fat via the development of healthier palm-free products with potential to capture significant segments of the functional ingredient and bakery markets* contributing to the recovery of the industry partners from the COVID-19 pandemic via the added market advantage of these healthier new products* developing a linseed processing co-product currently used as animal feed (defatted linseed meal from oil extraction) into a high-value ingredient