They store better, keep longer, and offer clear cost benefits: Cooking and whipping cream based on vegetable fat and milk protein have several advantages over conventional cream. The final products are more stable and feature attractive properties. What’s more, vegetable fat is generally available at all times. Stabilizing specialist Hydrosol offers many different stabilizing and texturing systems for individual product solutions, and its latest development is a system for making mixed fat cream. Manufacturers can learn about these concepts at FiE in Frankfurt, at booth 3.1D160. Hydrosol also offers new ideas for applications, for example a whippable vegetable fat cream to which a fruit juice concentrate can be added while whipping, for a fruity cream alternative with stable foam that is ideal for desserts, cakes, and cupcakes.
Functional advantages
With the Stabimuls ICR stabilizing and texturing systems, manufacturers can make whipping creams that have substantially higher whipping volume and a firmer foam structure than conventional cream. Freeze-thaw-stable variants are also possible. The systems in the Stabisol Vega range give cooking creams with flexible 10-30 percent fat contents. They are heat- and acid-stable and won’t flock out, even in the presence of alcohol. There is also a version that combines both benefits – i.e., is good for cooking as well as whipping.
It might sound simple, but the production of vegetable fat cream is a complicated matter with many potential sources of problems. Katharina Burdorf, Team Lead Product Management Hydrosol: “One key factor is the fat quality. The melting range and solids component at a certain temperature play an important role in giving the final product a pleasant melt in the mouth.” Further important factors are the sugar quality, proteins, and emulsifiers. Even the hardness of the water can influence the end product.
There is high potential for faults in the technical process as well. “When making a vegetable fat cream, due to the composition it is best to homogenize only after heating. But for many operators that is not possible. We therefore developed solutions that circumvent the issue, so that vegetable fat creams can be made in upstream processes without problems,” said Katharina Burdorf. The filling temperature is especially critical. If it is higher than 10°C – as is the case on many production lines – fat crystallization is inhibited. “With our special stabilizing systems, companies can fill their products at temperatures up to 18°C. Thus we can solve two key problems, upstream homogenization and filling, with just one system.”
Economical solutions
More and more dairies are benefiting from this success, and many are expanding their portfolios with vegetable fat products. “Milk fat is an expensive raw material that is limited in quantity and is also used for many other things. In addition, vegetable fat cream is an ideal alternative in regions where there is no fresh milk,” explained Burdorf. “The products themselves are stabler than milk cream. Despite high whipping volumes of up to 400 percent they keep their stability for a long time.”
Furthermore, with these stabilizers it is possible to make vegetable fat creams that can be stored at room temperatures of up to 25°C. They can even be whipped at room temperature without prior cooling, depending on the formulation.
New mixed fat cream
The latest variant is a combination of dairy and vegetable fat. “We’ve succeeded in avoiding the problem of self-impeding fat crystallization of milk and vegetable fats,” said Katharina Burdorf. With the help of the new functional systems in the Stabimuls series, a whippable mixed fat cream can be obtained which tastes extremely similar to conventional whipping cream. At the same time, it has a lighter mouthfeel than most vegetable fat creams and higher foam stability than conventional cream. These advantages make it especially suitable for the food service market, for example for decorating cakes.
