Shortening refers to refined animal and vegetable fats and oils, hydrogenated oils or mixtures of the above fats and oils, solid fats and oils made by rapid cooling and kneading, or solid or fluidized fat and oil products made without rapid cooling and kneading. Shortening has plasticity and emulsification and other processing effects, generally should not be directly consumed, but used for processing pastry, bread or fried food.

There are many varieties of shortening on the foreign market. According to the above classification and then to the series. For example, the degree of hydrogenation of fats and oils, the size of plasticity, inflation rate, consistency or viscosity, the oil content of the powder and so on. However, in the domestic market did not see a variety of domestic varieties, the food industry has not yet put forward a variety or special requirements, so in this regard is only in the primary stage.

Harms of shortening

Shortening as a food processing of a fat, and ordinary edible cooking oil is not the same, shortening raw materials are generally more advanced coconut oil or palm oil, but the most common lower-end ordinary is soybean oil, is a plant to put the fat hydrogenation output of the fat, which produces a large number of trans-fatty acids.

Trans fatty acids are harmful to the human body because the body can't absorb them and can't metabolize them well, so they just stay in the body.

For children and teenagers may affect their growth and development, so it should be eaten even less. However, these hazards are only possible if you eat a lot of food containing shortening over a long period of time before you accumulate a lot of shortening trans fatty acids in your body. All occasionally eat a little bit is no problem, but pay attention to what food do not long-term overdose.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Shortening