The hydrogenated vegetable fat normally used as a vehicle for flavoring snacks, has been partially or totally replaced by rapeseed oil, resulting in a new snack with 73,8% less saturated fat than regular snacks. This new product doesn't have any trans fatty acids in its composition. The impact of this replacement in sensorial characteristics of this product has been analyzed. In the sample where the fat had been totally replaced the color change was deltaE=2.04. It has been also noticed that replacement up to 50% did not cause any significant changes on texture (p<0.05). However, when this replacement is over 75%, a texture difference was observed as compared to the standard sample. In the sensorial analysis, the standard sample (22% fat) was compared to the one flavored with 22% rapeseed oil, and the difference in texture was noticed, with the sample flavored with vegetable fat presenting better sensory acceptance. Based on our results, we concluded that the sensorial characteristics of this product were not affected practically after the replacement of regular fat by rapeseed oil, making approaches like this viable to be used on an industrial scale with the purpose to help reducing the intake of saturated and trans fatty acids by the population.
saturated fat; trans fatty acids; snacks; sensorial acceptability; hydrogenated vegetable fat
