Production and characterization of promising β-stable seed crystals to modulate the crystallization of fat-based industrial products

Spray cooling or spray chilling is a technique for obtaining solid lipid microparticles (SLMs) within the diameter range in micrometers using low temperatures and no organic solvents. It is a low-cost technique and is easy to scale-up. The production of SLMs into beta-form represents a technological challenge due to the fast crystallization given by the spray cooling system, which generally results in SLMs crystallized into the metastable polymorphic form a. This study focuses on the production and characterization of SLMs by spray cooling using hard fat soybean oil (HS) added of D-limonene or canola oil, aiming to their application as beta-seed crystals into lipid systems. The beta-seed crystals could turn into an alternative lipid material to be used in fat-based products that present the preferential beta' crystallization, like palm oil, increasing its compatibility with cocoa butter (CB) and allowing for the development of substitutes. The obtained SLMs showed spherical geometry and no agglomeration during storage at 25 degrees C for up to 30 days, verified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mean diameters (D-50) were between 150 and 200 pm and the beta' and beta-form, determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), appeared immediately after the crystallization process by spray cooling using HS added of 5% D-limonene (the HS control sample presented only the alpha-form). The SLMs of this study demonstrated their potential use as beta-seed crystals into lipid systems.