History
Coasun Inc. was incorporated in June 2008 to license the patented technology in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.The innovative CoasunSA shortening alternative product was developed by Dr. Alex Marangoni, Professor of Food Science, University of Guelph and Canada Research Chair. Dr. Alejandro Marangoni has published over 150 peer reviewed articles, 5 books, and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on lipids.
CoasunSA is the first shortening alternative that provides a viable option to food processors challenged to reformulate food products that currently contain high levels of saturated and trans fat by both eliminating trans fats and significantly reducing the level of saturated fats.
Patents
Patented in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, Singapore, and Brazil, the COASUN shortening alternative product will enable food companies to reformulate their products and allow them to make zero trans claims without adding high levels of saturated fat.
CoasunSA is produced with a range of vegetable oils such as canola, soy, and sunflower oil. Low linolenic and high oleic oils are also becoming very popular.
The Products
The CoasunSA shortening alternative is available in several formats to meet the needs of the baking industry. CoasunSA is white in appearance, odorless, tasteless, and has a creamy in texture. The material is also pumpable, an advantageous characteristic that improves material handling.
Applications
The innovative CoasunSa shorting alternative can be substituted for vegetable shortening, butter, lard and bakers’ margarines in a wide range of bakery applications such as:
The Trans Fat Problem
Obesity and cardiovascular disease are of increasing concern to Canadians even though Canada has among the toughest food regulations in the world. 26% of young Canadians are overweight or obese. Many preventable diseases are associated with being overweight or obese including: cardiovascular disease, joint problems, and type II diabetes which can lead to premature death (Merrifield, Rob. 2007. Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids. Report of the Standing Committee on Health. 39th Parliament 1st session).
The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation, the American Heart Association and the Institute of Medicine, among many others, have strongly recommended a reduction in the amount of trans and saturated fats in our diets.
Trans fats originate from the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils, predominantly canola and soy bean oils. These fats are used extensively in food manufacturing and food service operations and have been clearly and conclusively shown to have severe deleterious effects on cardiovascular health. Trans fats have a double negative effect on cardiovascular health by increasing LDL (the bad) cholesterol while decreasing HDL (the good) cholesterol.
Despite numerous recommendations that Canadians reduce the amount of trans fats in their diets, many foods rely on trans fats for their functionality and industry has yet to find an appropriate fat replacement.
Trans fats are produced from the partial hydrogenation of liquid oils. This results in a plastic fat with a higher melting point and improved resistance to oxidation, which increases the shelf life of both the fat and the final product. A replacement must share the functionality of these trans fats to maintain the product convenience and quality consumers expect.
Saturated Fats – The latest challenge to the food industry
An interim measure adopted by many food manufacturing and food service establishments to achieve a trans fat free product has been to replace trans fats with saturated tropical oils such as palm fat. However, excessive consumption of saturated fats has also been conclusively shown to have negative effects on cardiovascular health. Tropical fats have significant amounts of atherogenic saturated fats that cause the formation fatty deposits in the arteries.
The consumption of saturated fats has been identified with increased “bad” (L.D.L low-density lipoprotein) serum cholesterol levels. The use of tropical fats such as palm oil is not a viable long term solution to finding a solution for the replacement of trans fats in food products.
In a recent report (16 January, 2008 EB122/9) by the World Health Organization (WHO) titled Prevention and control of non communicable diseases: implementation and global stragegy the WHO recommends that countries “enact legislation to support healthier composition of food products, but including:
The Challenge
The challenge is to remove trans fats from products without loading up the products with saturated fats such as palm oil and without causing undue hardship to the food manufacturing and food service industries due to increased costs, limited availability and or lack of performance (taste, texture) of replacements
The real solution to the problem must address all the issues just raised; less than that would not be a viable solution or a viable alternative to the problem confronting the food industry. Moreover, the trans fat alternative should be targeted toward manufactured food products (muffins, cookies, cakes, biscuits, laminated products, pie shells, tarts, and confection products among others).
The CoasunSA Solution
By physically structuring liquid oils and forming a semi-solid paste, much of the functionality associated with trans fats can be maintained, while improving nutritional profiles. Any vegetable oil or blend of vegetable oils with other fats can be used to make the material. Nutraceuticals products can also be manufactured by adding oil soluble adjuncts, such as vitamin E and phytosterols, to the oil phase. The health benefits of the shortening reflect the type of oil used.
Figure 1. A) Confocal laser scanning micrographs of COASUN, where lipids are stained with Nile Red and water with coumarin (blue). B) Polarized light micrograph of COASUN showing birefringent monoglyceride cell walls surrounding oil droplets.
Benefits of CoasunSA
CoasunSA products can be made with virtually any vegetable oil including low linolenic soybean oil, high oleic canola oil, high oleic sunflower oil, and other new oil profiles such as high stearic acid sunflower oil. The flexibility to use any oil allows tailored shortenings to be made that provide unique functional and nutritional properties. High stearic sunflower oil for example provides a healthy source of saturated fat from stearic acid which has the functional characteristics needed for many baking applications has been shown to be neutral to cardiovascular health.
Cleaner Ingredient Declaration
CoasunSA shortening alternative products enable customers to develop cleaner nutritional declarations and labels.
Innovation
CoasunSA shortening alternative products enable customers to develop innovative solutions to the challenge of developing healthier products.
Health
CoasunSA products contain zero trans fats and are very low in saturated fat.
The unique structuring of the oils gives CoasunSA additional metabolic advantages. These include an attenuated increase in blood triglycerides and free fatty acids, as well as an attenuated increase in insulin levels after acute consumption of CoasunSA.
Figure 2. Changes in serum triacylglycerol (A), free fatty acids (B), glucose (C) and insulin (D) levels after acute consumption of COASUN shortening alternative (mag gel) relative to compositionally equivalent oil-water mixtures (oil).
Production Efficiency
Customers report that mixing time is reduced by up to 50% by using the CoasunSA shortening alternative versus other shortenings. The resultant energy savings can be significant and increase the profitability of customers using CoasunSA products.
Economy
By utilizing oils derived from locally grown crops to produce a functional shortening for baked goods, we support local agriculture, the Agri-food industry and rural economies.
Neutral Taste and Smell
CoasunSA products have no taste or smell which assists in the production of various products.
Shelf Life
Coasun customers have noted that for specific applications, such as fresh cookies, a significant increase in shelf life has been achieved.
Weight Management and Calorie Reduction
Coasun customers have noted an average of a 10%-15% reduction in caloric content in their products produced with the CoasunSA shortening alternative.
Application of CoasunSA
The cellular solid matrix imparts exceptional tribological (lubrication and coating) characteristics during mixing, creaming (air incorporation and stabilization), water binding and emulsification characteristics, making it ideal as a trans fat free shortening alternative.
Studies have demonstrated that CoasunSA shortening alternative products can be substituted for vegetable shortening, butter, lard, and bakers’ margarines in muffins, waffles, cakes, cookies, brownies, scones, tea biscuits, pizza dough, bread, pie and tart shells and biscotti with no quality compromises. An Ontario-based baked products manufacturer, has successfully replaced their margarine with COASUN and now have an improved nutrition label while maintaining a high quality decadent cookie as seen in table 1.
| Table 1. Comparison of a traditional decadent cookie made with COASUN versus hydrogenated margarine made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil | ||
| ChocolateChip Cookie | Maragarine | COASUN |
| Claims permitted in Canada |
None |
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| Nutrition | Calories / Calories 250 | Calories / Calories 230 |
| Fat / Lipides 11 g 17% | Fat / Lipides 9 g 14% | |
| Saturated / saturés 3.5g | Saturated / saturés 2 g | |
| + Trans / trans 2 g | + Trans / trans 0 g | |
| Source of fat | Margarine made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil | Locally grown liquid oils (e.g. soybean, canola, sunflower) and monoglyceride derived from soybean oil |