Relationship between triglyceride structure and softening point of milk fat

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Abstract
Summary: Eight samples of milk fat were selected for softening point (SP) range. They were separated into high, medium and low molecular weight triglyceride fractions by silicic acid-column chromatography to enable further separation into triglyceride classes by silver ion adsorption thin-layer chromatography. Correlation between triglyceride class content and SP was low. The molecular species composition of the triglyceride classes was determined and correlated with SP. The best correlations were between SP and some low and some high molecular weight triglycerides of the total fat and the trisaturated (SSS) triglyceride class. Correlation coefficients were determined between SP and mole percentage of individual fatty acids and groups of acids. The highest correlations were between SP and individual short chain-length fatty acids (C4–C10) and groupings of short chain-length acids (C4–C10) and groupings of long chain-length acids (C16–C20). The triglyceride class composition of a sample of milk fat was determined before and after interesterification. Interesterification increased the SP from 31·6 to 36·3 °C and produced increased amounts of both low and high and decreased amounts of medium molecular weight triglyceride molecular species in all triglyceride classes. The increases in the amounts of high molecular weight triglycerides were several times greater than the increase in the amounts of low molecular weight triglycerides.