Polymorphism and Solid State Miscibility of Triacylglycerols. Application to Food Authentication

Abstract

Esta tesis se basa fundamentalmente en el estudio in situ del polimorfismo de triacilgliceroles (TAGs) mayoritarios de aceites y grasas alimentarios, la determinación del comportamiento de fases de algunas de sus mezclas binarias, y la aplicación del polimorfismo como herramienta para la autentificación de productos alimentarios. Se ha llevado a cabo la caracterización polimórfica de los TAGs POP, OPO, POO, POL, SOO, OOO y OOL, básicamente utilizando una combinación de calorimetría diferencial de barrido y difracción de rayos X con radiación sincrotrón (SAXD y WAXD). Así, se han podido monitorizar los procesos dinámicos de cristalización y las transiciones polimórficas cuando las muestras se sometían a diferentes velocidades de enfriamiento y calentamiento. Los resultados obtenidos son directamente aplicables a procesos de cristalización de aceites y grasas alimentarios, con la finalidad de obtener las propiedades deseadas del producto final, utilizando los tratamientos térmicos más eficientes. Para comprender las interacciones intermoleculares que tienen lugar entre TAGs, se ha determinado los diagramas de fases de las mezclas PPO-OPO, PPO-POO y POO-OPO. Se ha observado un comportamiento eutéctico para el sistema PPO-OPO, mientras que en los sistemas PPO-POO y POO-OPO se formaba un compuesto molecular (co-cristal) metaestable, que tendía a separarse en los componentes de origen. Mediante el uso de difracción de rayos X con micro-haz de radiación sincrotrón, se han analizado las microestructuras heterogenias de mezclas de POP-OPO. El estudio de estos agregados cristalinos esferulíticos es directamente aplicable a procesos de fraccionamiento del aceite de palma. Con la finalidad de comprender muestras grasas más complejas, se ha caracterizado el complejo comportamiento polimórfico de mezclas multi-componente de 3 a 6 TAGs. Para el caso particular del aceite de oliva, el comportamiento polimórfico viene básicamente determinado por los TAGs mayoritarios, mientras que los componentes minoritarios parecen desarrollar un papel menos crucial. Finalmente, se ha aplicado el comportamiento polimórfico como herramienta para la autentificación y detección de fraudes en productos alimentarios. Ha sido posible determinar adiciones fraudulentas de aceite de avellana en aceite de oliva virgen extra en concentraciones inferiores al 5%, y se han podido establecer diferencias muy significativas en grasas de jamones Ibéricos de las categorías cebo y bellota.

Lipids, together with proteins and carbohydrates are major nutrients and also employed as lipophilic materials in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Alimentary and industrial fats and oils (such as vegetable oils, margarine, chocolate, and confectionery fats) mainly consist of triacylglycerols (TAGs), whose molecules involve different types of fatty acid moieties. TAGs show a complicated crystallization behavior. The physicochemical properties of a TAG molecule are determined by the nature and compositions of the three fatty acid moieties. These properties must be studied not only in their pure systems but also in mixed systems. In particular, studies on binary mixture systems provide valuable information about molecular interactions among different lipid materials. This PhD thesis is based on the study of the in situ polymorphic characterization of the main TAGs of some vegetable and animal fats and oils, some of their mixtures and the use of the polymorphic behavior of edible fats and oils as a tool to determine their authentication. The polymorphic study of the triacylglycerols POP, OPO, POO, POL, SOO, OOO and OOL was in situ characterized by mainly using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (SR-XRD) with SAXD and WAXD simultaneous measurement. The combined usage of DSC and SR-XRD or laboratory-scale X-ray diffraction enabled us to monitor the occurrence and transformation behavior at different rates of cooling and heating. The results obtained are closely related to actual crystallization processes of edible fats and oils, in which most functional polymorphic forms can be obtained by applying the most efficient thermal treatments. We also determined the phase behavior of binary mixtures of mixed-acid TAGs containing palmitic and oleic fatty acids (i.e. PPO-OPO, PPO-POO and POO-OPO). PPO-OPO system revealed an eutectic behavior, whereas PPO-POO and POO-OPO were molecular compound-forming. Long incubation periods were needed in order to thermodynamically stabilize the binary mixtures, and the results demonstrated that molecular compounds of PPO-POO and POO-OPO were metastable and tended to separate into the pure TAG components. On the other hand, microstructures of spherulites of POP-OPO binary mixtures were analyzed in neat liquid and solution (n-dodecane) systems by using synchrotron radiation microbeam X-ray diffraction (SR-mu-XRD). Due to a molecular compound formation at the 50:50 concentration ratio, 75POP:25OPO and 25POP:75OPO compositions were characterized to study how the microstructures of spherulites of the TAGs mixtures are determined when the molecular compound crystals and POP or OPO component crystals can be formed competitively. Studies of these heterogeneous microstructures in neat liquid and solution are applicable to palm oil fractionation processes by dry and solvent methods. In an attempt to make an approach to complex natural fatty samples, such as olive oil, the polymorphism of multicomponent mixtures (from 3 to 6 TAG components) was analyzed and discussed. Thus, we observed that the polymorphic behavior of an extra virgin olive oil from the Arbequina olive variety was mainly influenced by its main TAGs, whereas apparently minor components did not develop a crucial role. Furthermore, we also used the polymorphic behavior of natural fat and oils (virgin and extra virgin olive oil, and Iberian ham fat) as a tool to determine authenticity (different ham categories depending on the fattening system used) and detection of adulterations (fraudulent additions of hazelnut oil in olive oil). The combined use of DSC and preliminary chemometric calculations permitted determining fraudulent additions of raw hazelnut oil in an extra virgin olive oil (Arbequina) at concentrations below 5%. On the other hand, highly significant differences were detected in the polymorphic behavior of Iberian ham fat from the bellota and cebo categories.