bake - February 2017 - 10

technical corner

Eliminating PHOs in Pies
Trans-fat debates began in the 1990s. Stratas Foods began

The ﬁrst few rounds of non-PHO replacements led to common

working toward the optimal solution in 2003, at a time when the

challenges; pie defects like crust shrinkage, fried crust, lack of

debate was in the full discussion and before the Food and Drug

ﬂakiness and blistering on the top. Crust shrinkage is typically

Administration (FDA) instituted the requirement to label trans fats

caused by either insufficient shortening or the wrong type of

on the nutrition facts panel in 2006.

shortening. The wrong type of shortening can also lead to tough
crust, a crust that isn't ﬂaky or even a soggy crust - none of which

Then in 2015, the FDA mandated that food manufacturers have

pie makers want to encounter.

three years to remove partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) from
products. That mandate was not a surprise. In fact, the oil indus-

Where does the industry stand now on a PHO replacement for pie

try was already well into the development of a series of new zero

shortenings?

trans-fat oil and shortening products. The goal is to develop oils
and shortenings that withstand the demands of the manufactur-

The next generation solution comes from the research labs of

ing process while retaining ﬂavor, functionality and consistency.

Stratas Foods. It is the ﬁrst solution that offers both a formula
change and a process change.

The pie crust industry has struggled to ﬁnd a drop-in solution to
replace PHO products over the decades. To understand the dif-

"Golden Flex offers PHO utility without the PHO," said Roger Dan-

ﬁculties, it helps to start with a look at the critical basics of how

iels, vice president of research, development and innovation at

pie crust is made:

Stratas Foods. "This innovation moves the needle in terms of consistency, stability, ﬁrmness, and performance by leveraging, for the

x Cutting shortening into ﬂour, encasing pockets of ﬂour inside
a shell of fat
x Adding water to moisten the ﬂour whereupon gluten-the
network of proteins that lend structure to baked goods-is

ﬁrst time, the marriage of Stratas' proprietary functional crystallization with an expanded and more resilient fatty acid platform.
Moreover, Golden Flex achieves this major step with a soybean oil,
rather than a palm oil based product."

formed
x Rolling this dough out, these pockets of fat stretch and

This unique combination allows for the beneﬁts of uniform, proper

stretch, eventually forming sheet of fat that separate sheets

crystal shape and size needed for delivering a drop-in replace-

of gluten-enforced ﬂour

ment for PHO.

x As the pastry bakes, the fatty layers melt, allowing the ﬂoury
layers to separate from each other, solidify, and form the lay-

"Golden Flex is a really unique product. The industry has offered

ers you see in a great pie crust.

formulaic changes to provide non-PHO options, but the Flex
processing technology that was designed in our labs at Stratas

Replacing trans fats in the pie industry disrupts this process in

together with an enhanced and more stable fatty acid platform, is

terms of stability, performance and higher costs. Why has it been

unprecedented and potentially a game changer," said Daniels.

so hard for the baking industry to replace trans fats in shortenings? There are a few reasons.

As part of its commercialization validation, Stratas has been
introducing Golden Flex to a mix of clients for trial and testing,

Trans fats, which are more resistant to oxidation, have a broad

where it has been received with very positive reviews. Some major

plasticity range and have been typically cheaper to process com-

bakers participating in early beta testing have even found it to

pared to the ﬁrst rounds of drop-in substitutes.

outperform their former PHO products.

10 < FEB 2017 | bakemag.com

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bake - February 2017

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