Claims
- 1. A stabilized lipid composition of randomly interesterified triacylglycerols (TAGs) comprising, by weight of fatty acid components:
long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) having at least 20 carbon atoms and a degree of unsaturation of at least 4 and being present in a nutritionally beneficial amount but less than 5% by weight; and medium-chain saturated fatty acids (MC-SFAs) having six to fourteen carbon atoms and being present to promote absorption of the LC-PUFAs; wherein the TAGs containing LC-PUFAs almost exclusively are mono-LC-PUFA.
- 2. The composition of claim 1 wherein the LC-PUFAs predominantly comprise arachidonic acid (AA), docosohexaenoic acid (DHA), eicosopentaenoic acid (EPA) or mixtures thereof.
- 3. The composition of claim 2 wherein the AA and DHA are predominantly in the LC-PUFAs of the TAGs.
- 4. The composition of claim 1 wherein the MC-SFAs comprise coconut, basbassu or palm kernel fats or natural or synthetic medium chain triglycerides containing caproic acid, caprylic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid or mixtures thereof.
- 5. The composition of claim 1 wherein the MC-SFAs have ten to twelve carbon atoms.
- 6. In a nutritional product that contains lipids, improvement where at least a portion of the lipids include the lipid composition of claim 1.
- 7. The nutritional product of claim 7, wherein the lipids are present in an amount of 15 to 35% by weight of dry matter, with the lipid composition of claim 1 representing 5 to 50% of that amount.
- 8. An infant food which further comprises the nutritional product of claim 8 and one or more components of proteins, hydrolysed proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and trace elements.
- 9. The infant food of claim 9 in dry form.
- 10. A process for the preparation of a lipid composition which comprises:
interesterifying a mixture of (A) 1 to 20% of an oil that is rich in LC-PUFAs having a degree of unsaturation of at least 4 and (B) 80 to 99% of an oil that is rich in MC-SFAs at a sufficient temperature ad for a sufficient time in the presence of a catalyst to form a product where fatty acids are randomly distributed on a glyceryl backbone; washing the product to remove alkaline and soap residues; refining the product by removing secondary products of the interesterification and traces of soap from the washed product; and deodorizing the refined product to obtain a deodorized, decolorized, stabilized lipid composition.
- 11. The process of claim 11 wherein the product is refined by contacting the washed product with an adsorbent for a time sufficient to adsorb secondary products of the interesterification and traces of soap from the product, and then separating the adsorbent from the product.
- 12. The process of claim 11 wherein the refined product is deodorized by steam distillation under vacuum for about 3 hours at a temperature of about 190° C.
- 13. The process of claim 11, wherein the LC-PUFAs have at least 20 carbon atoms, the MC-SFAs have six to fourteen carbon atoms, and the catalyst is a methoxide or ethoxide, present in an amount of about 0.2% by weight of the starting components.
- 14. The process of claim 11, wherein the product is washed with an aqueous medium that includes salt in an amount sufficient to avoid emulsion formation.
- 15. The process of claim 11, wherein the oil mixture is heated to 80 to 90° C. remove water prior to adding the catalyst, and the catalyst is added with vigorous stirring sufficient to homogeneously disperse the catalyst therein.
- 16. The process of claim 11, which further comprises forming a nutritional product containing lipids and substituting the resultant lipid composition for a portion of the lipids in the nutritional product.
- 17. The process of claim 11, which further comprises forming a nutritional product containing lipids and substituting the resultant lipid composition for a portion of the lipids in the nutritional product.
- 18. The process of claim 17, wherein the lipids are present in an amount of 15 to 35% by weight of dry matter of the nutritional product, with the lipid composition representing 5 to 50% of that amount, the nutritional product further comprises one or more components of proteins, hydrolysed proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and trace elements, and the product is prepared by mixing the components in liquid form, followed by sterilizing or pasteurizing and then asceptically packaging the product.
- 19. The process of claim 18, wherein the product prepared in dry form.
- 20. The process of claim 19 wherein the lipids are present in an amount of 15 to 35% by weight of dry matter of the nutritional product, with the lipid composition representing 5 to 50% of that amount, the nutritional product further comprises one or more components of proteins, hydrolysed proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and trace elements in dry form, and the product is prepared by dry mixing the components together and then packaging the product.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
99200395.4 |
Feb 1999 |
EP |
|
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of the U.S. national stage designation of International Application PCT/EP00/00908 filed Feb. 7, 2000, the content of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference thereto.
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
PCT/EP00/00908 |
Feb 2000 |
US |
Child |
09921088 |
Aug 2001 |
US |