Abstract
Meat analogues have gained global attention as consumer demand increases for healthier and more sustainable food products. However, research aimed at replacing solid fats in meat analogues to lower saturated fat content remains very limited. Canola oil was structured with three natural waxes (candelilla wax, carnauba wax, and beeswax) and their potentials as solid fat replacers were evaluated for low saturated fat meat analogues. The wax-based oleogels retained solid fat at higher temperatures compared to coconut oil. Candelilla wax oleogels showed the highest hardness at room temperature. Upon melting, carnauba wax oleogels exhibited the highest viscosity and the greatest sensitivity to temperature changes, as evidenced by their highest activation energy. Replacement of coconut oil with wax-based oleogels did not significantly alter the visual appearance of meat analogues. Meat analogues with oleogels had significantly lower cooking loss, especially with carnauba wax oleogels. The hardness of coconut oil and oleogels was correlated to that of the corresponding meat analogues (R2 = 0.76). Additionally, oleogel-based analogues had a much healthier fatty acid profile, with lower saturated and higher unsaturated fat content, closely resembling canola oil. Therefore, this study demonstrated that wax-based oleogels were promising solid fat alternatives for developing plant-based meat analogues with enhanced cooking performance and healthier fatty acid composition.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (IPET) through the High Value-added Food Technology Development Program, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (RS-2024-00509810), and also by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (RS-2022-NR069007).
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Y.S.P. conducted formal analyses and study design, interpreted the data, and drafted and edited the manuscript. S.J. interpreted the data, supervised the study, and edited the manuscript. S.L. contributed to conceptualisation, supervised, edited the manuscript and acquired funding.
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Park, Y.S., Jeong, S. & Lee, S. Functional evaluation of wax-based oleogels as solid fat replacers for designing low saturated fat plant-based meat analogues. npj Sci Food (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-026-00713-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-026-00713-x
