www.encyclopedia.com Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700:20::681a:90d Public Scan

Back to summary

Submitted URL:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/fat-substitute#:~:text=Simplesse%20%C2%...
Effective URL:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/food-and-drink/food-and-cooking/fat-substitute
Submission: On July 29 via api (July 29th 2023, 1:02:25 am UTC) from FI — Scanned from FI

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.encyclopedia.com/gsearch

<form action="https://www.encyclopedia.com/gsearch" method="get">
  <div class="js-form-item form-item js-form-type-search form-item-keys js-form-item-keys form-no-label"> <span class="field-preffix"> <input class="button js-form-submit form-submit" data-drupal-selector="edit-submit" type="submit" id="edit-submit"
        value=""> </span> <input title="Enter the terms you wish to search for." class="searchbox form-search form-input" placeholder="What do you want to learn today?" data-drupal-selector="edit-keys" type="search" id="edit-keys" name="q" value=""
      size="15" maxlength="128"> <span class="field-suffix"> <i class="fa ency-close"></i> </span></div>
  <div data-drupal-selector="edit-actions" class="form-actions js-form-wrapper form-wrapper" id="edit-actions"> <input class="button js-form-submit form-submit" data-drupal-selector="edit-submit" type="submit" id="edit-submit" value="Search"></div>
</form>

Text Content

Skip to main content
EXPLORE
EXPLORE
* Earth and Environment
* History
* Literature and the Arts
* Medicine
* People
* Philosophy and Religion
* Places
* Plants and Animals
* Science and Technology
* Social Sciences and the Law
* Sports and Everyday Life
* Additional References
* Articles
* Daily

*
* Sports and Everyday Life
* Food and Drink
* Food and Cooking
* Fat Substitute

FAT SUBSTITUTE

gale
views 1,827,479 updated May 21 2018

FAT SUBSTITUTE

BACKGROUND

Fat. No one likes it; no one wants it. Diets high in fat have been linked to
serious health problems and weight gain. The battle to limit fat consumption is
now a billion dollar industry. Low calorie, low fat, fat free, or no fat foods
are being mass marketed to legions of Americans who are fighting the proverbial
battle of the "bulge." One development in this battle has been the introduction
of fat substitutes. Simplesse®, a protein-based fat substitute, is one such
product being promoted to help diet-conscious consumers fight weight gain.

HISTORY

Simplesse is a brand-name fat substitute made by NutraSweet Company of
Deerfield, Illinois, but it was not the first "fake fat" to be manufactured. In
the early 1970s, Proctor & Gamble developed Olestra® while conducting research
to develop premature infant formula. Olestra was made by chemically binding a
sugar to the fatty acids in vegetable oil to create a substance known as sucrose
polyester that looks, tastes, and feels like real fat. Sucrose polyester cannot
be broken down by digestive enzymes so it passes through the body without giving
off calories.

Encyclopedia 1080

0 seconds of 1 minute, 4 secondsVolume 0%

Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled
Play/PauseSPACE
Increase Volume↑
Decrease Volume↓
Seek Forward→
Seek Backward←
Captions On/Offc
Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf
Mute/Unmutem
Seek %0-9
Live
00:00
01:04
01:04

Olestra was used in ice cream, cooking oil, salad dressings, baked goods,
deep-fried foods, and snack chips. Recently, Olestra's safety as a food additive
has been questioned by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The Center
asserted that Olestra is a chemically altered substance that produces "a new
molecule that is totally foreign to the body." Olestra's patent expired in 1994,
and Proctor & Gamble still awaits approval by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). Meanwhile, the company has developed Caprenin®, a reduced-calorie fat
that is similar to cocoa butter. Caprenin uses two unsaturated fats and acids
from coconut and palm kernel oils and is only partially absorbed by the body.

In 1984, inventors Norman S. Singer, Shoji Yamamoto, and Joseph Latella of
London, Canada, filed for a U.S. patent for Simplesse. According to the patent
(patent #4,734,287), Simplesse is made of egg white and whey, a milk byproduct
obtained through a microparticulation process. This process turns the milk
mixture into small particles that resemble the texture of fat. Compared to real
fat, Simplesse has less than one-third of the calories. NutraSweet compared the
fat and calories of a super-premium vanilla ice cream containing 16% butterfat
with a similar dessert using Simplesse. A four-ounce ice cream serving contained
19 grams of fat, 97 milligrams of cholesterol, and 274 calories. The samesize
serving of Simple Pleasures®, containing Simplesse, had less than 1 gram of fat,
14 milligrams of cholesterol, and 120 calories. However, unlike other fat
substitutes, Simplesse cannot withstand heat and therefore cannot be used in
cooked items.

In 1990, the FDA approved Simplesse for use as a thickener or texturizer in
frozen desserts. The FDA approval confirmed that this product met its "generally
recognized as safe" (GRAS) standards. Simplesse is marketed as a food ingredient
and is currently used in 18 products worldwide.

RAW MATERIALS

Simplesse is made out of egg whites, milk and whey proteins, pectin, and citric
acids. Whey is a byproduct of cheesemaking. These materials are combined,
homogenated, and heated in a microparticulation process whereby the proteins are
shaped into round particles that have the texture of fat and that roll smoothly
over one another.

THE MANUFACTURING
PROCESS

The microparticulation process is one that dates back to about 1000 b.c. The
ancient Apicius cookbook detailed a mixture of eggs, milk, and honey that formed
a custard-like gel (tyropatinam) that was eaten along with cheese.
Microparticulation does the same for Simplesse, which is said to create a
"creamy" sensation when eaten. After microparticulation, there are about 50
billion balls or particles of the egg white and whey and milk protein substance
per teaspoon. To the tongue, Simplesse feels smooth. Norman Singer, Simplesse's
chief inventor, says the process rearranges the molecules similar to "winding
them up like spaghetti on a fork." Simplesse is considered to be virtually free
of cholesterol.

MIXING THE INGREDIENTS

* 1 Water, gum, and sugar are mixed in a dry blender and then moved to a batch
tank. Egg whites, whey protein concentrate, and skim milk proteins are added.
The pH, or acidity, levels are adjusted to the mix as it sits in the batch
tank.
* 2 Lethecin, pectin, and citric acid are completely dissolved and dispersed so
that no particles larger than 1 micron (one millionth of a meter) can be
found in the premix before homogenizing pasteurization. The pectin/citric
acid mix is then added to the egg white, whey, and milk proteins.

HEATING

* 3 The premix, a thin, pourable liquid, is warmed by a heat exchanger to a
temperature just below the coagulation region of the protein. This is about
165°F (74°C) for egg whites.
* 4 The warmed mix is poured into the homogenizing pasteurizer and heated
another 20°F (-6.7°C) in less than 10 seconds. During this time, the mixture
is continuously exposed to a uniformly turbulent field of homogenizing force.
Half of the protein denatures as a gel and forms beadlets of about 1 to 3
microns in diameter. Some-times the mixture is poured through a holding tube
before it is cooled.
* 5 Upon exiting the pasteurizer, the mixture is cooled to become creamy,
smooth, opaque, and semisolid. Simplesse is the end product.

QUALITY CONTROL

Whey is a key ingredient in Simplesse, but it is difficult to convert
industrially. Whey is obtained from cheesemaking and contains about 90% water.
Removing this excess water is costly, and the water is not easily disposed of
without causing environmental concerns. One alternative is to heat the whey to
denature and coagulate it. Once done, whey could then be separated into other
byproducts to defer processing and disposal costs.

Because Simplesse uses natural and not synthetic products, it is presumed safe
to use. However, care must be taken to manufacture the skim milk, whey proteins,
and egg proteins in sterile conditions to prevent bacteria from contaminating
the end product.

THE FUTURE

Fat replacers had a market value of about $100 million in 1991, but this is
expected to triple by 1996. The market for reduced-fat food products is
estimated at nearly $30 billion, making the future of fat substitutes highly
favorable. At issue, however, is making fat substitutes more palatable and
accessible to consumers. NutraSweet has asserted that full use of Simplesse
could decrease American fat consumption by 14% and cholesterol intake by 5%. As
of yet, Simplesse has not been approved for use in cooked, baked, or fried food
because it breaks down under heat.

WHERE TO LEARN MORE

BOOKS

"No-Fat Foods: Less than Meets the Eye?"Consumer Reports, May 1993, p. 279-81.

DeMoss, Virginia. "Ersatz Fat." Bicycling, June 1990, pp. 112-14.

Kantrowitz, Barbara. "A Heavyweight Fuss Over the New 'Fake Fat'."

Newsweek, March 5, 1990, p. 41.

Monmaney, Terence and Karen Springen. "The Cholesterol Connection." Newsweek,
February 8, 1988, p. 56-58.

Segal, Marian. "Fat Substitutes: A Taste of the Future?" FDA Consumer, December
1990, p. 25-27.

Singer, Norman S. and John Michael Dunn. "Protein Microparticulation: The
Principle and the Process." Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 1990,
pp. 388-97.

Springen, Karen. "How Low Can They Go?"Newsweek, August 20, 1990, pp. 66-67.

Steacy, Anne. "Fat That Will Not Fatten." Maclean's, February 15, 1988, p. 50.

Street, Robin. "Finally 'Fake Fat' Foods." Better Homes and Gardens, June 1990,
p. 32.

Thayer, Ann. M. "Food Additives." C&EN, June 15, 1992, pp. 26-44.

—Evelyn S. Dorman

How Products Are Made Dorman, Evelyn
×

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

* MLA
* Chicago
* APA

Dorman, Evelyn "Fat Substitute ." How Products Are Made. . Encyclopedia.com. 26
Jul. 2023 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Dorman, Evelyn "Fat Substitute ." How Products Are Made. . Encyclopedia.com.
(July 26, 2023).
https://www.encyclopedia.com/manufacturing/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/fat-substitute

Dorman, Evelyn "Fat Substitute ." How Products Are Made. . Retrieved July 26,
2023 from Encyclopedia.com:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/manufacturing/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/fat-substitute

Learn more about citation styles

CITATION STYLES

Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles
according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The
Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA).

Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available
information looks when formatted according to that style. Then, copy and paste
the text into your bibliography or works cited list.

Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not
all information is available for every reference entry or article,
Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Therefore, it’s
best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the
style against your school or publication’s requirements and the most-recent
information available at these sites:

MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION

http://www.mla.org/style

THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

http://apastyle.apa.org/

NOTES:

* Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers.
Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content.
However, the date of retrieval is often important. Refer to each style’s
convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates.
* In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university,
publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations.
Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your
bibliography or works cited list.

www.encyclopedia.com Open in urlscan Pro 2606:4700:20::681a:90d Public Scan

Form analysis 1 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.encyclopedia.com/gsearch

Text Content

www.encyclopedia.com Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700:20::681a:90d Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM