Oxidative Stability of Rice Bran Wax Oleogels and an Oleogel Cream Cheese Product

Recently, a number of publications demonstrated the successful applications of oleogels (OG) (liquid oils gelled through organogelators) in food products. Although many highlighted the health benefits of OG, potential negative impacts of thermal processing during oleogelation on nutrition and flavor quality of the OG-based food are not fully studied. Hence, in this study, an oleogel-cream-cheese (OCC) product was formulated and the effects of OG processing on the oil's oxidative stability and the tocopherol content were investigated. The OG system used in the cheese product was prepared with high-oleic soybean oil (HOSO) and rice bran wax. An ungelled cream-cheese sample (UGCC) and two commercial cream-cheese products were used as controls. Although high-performance liquid chromatography data analysis showed a lower total tocopherol content in OG samples compared to HOSO, the samples' alpha-tocopherol content remained comparable. No significant differences were observed between the total tocopherol contents of OCC and UGCC cheese products, and the amount of all three-tocopherol isomers remained constant during 14 days of storage. Although oxidation analysis showed more volatile compounds in OG samples compared to HOSO, there was only a minor difference in the volatile content between the OCC and UGCC samples. The results show minimal degradation of vegetable OG due to the thermal processing and storage that may help their potential application in dairy products.