Cargill Russia produces affordable solutions for health-conscious consumers
New production process allows production of food-grade vegetable oils and fats with low trans-fatty-acid content, supporting the production of nutritious consumer foods.
As of January 1, 2018, Russian authorities set a maximum limit of two percent for the amount of trans-fatty acids (TFAs) permissible in food-grade vegetable oils and fats in order to limit potential harmful impacts on human health, including raising the level of bad cholesterol, lowering the level of good cholesterol and increasing an individual’s risk for heart disease and strokes. Cargill’s global edible oils business in Russia designed and implemented a new production process at its Efremov plant at the end of 2017 that produces fats and oils with very low level of TFAs, thus offering Russian consumers a path to healthier baked goods and other foods.
More healthy—and affordable
“Like consumers everywhere, Russians are concerned about the health of the foods they eat,” said Olga Gribova, Cargill Russia research and development director. “But, perhaps more so than in some other regions, they are also concerned about affordability.”
That’s why Cargill’s Russian edible oils team focused on implementing this new technology to work with sunflower oil—which is a local raw material and is more affordable in the Russian marketplace than for example palm oil, another popular ingredient in all kinds of foods.
Along with the new production processes and facilities, the R&D team also developed new product formulations. The new, low trans-fat products have completely different functional properties that need to be fully understood before applying them. To get the new product formulations just right, the team turned to their Cargill colleagues in Europe, India and the U.S., who already had experience in working with fats and oils that are low in TFAs. Thanks in part to these collaborations, Cargill Russia can now offer its customers a complete line of low-trans-fat oils and fats for a broad range of bakery goods and other products.
“All of our specialty fats for dough and bakery applications have been modified to meet the limits on TFAs,” Gribova said. “Plus, we developed an interesting solution for bakery applications that does not use palm oil, resulting in products that contain significantly less saturated fat, supporting production of healthy and nutritious foods.”
Apparently Gribova and the rest of Cargill Russia’s technical team got the formulations right when it comes to taste and consumer appeal, too. One of their reformulated products—Vegacream 1510—won a gold medal at the recent ProdExpo 2018 trade show. In addition to being more nutritious, this specialty fat for bakery was recognized for its affordability, stability across a wide range of temperatures, and its suitability for inclusion in a wide spectrum of bakery products.