Changes in Thermal, Textural, Color and Microstructure Properties of Oleogel Made from Beeswax with Grape Seed Oil under the Effect of Cooling Rate and Oleogelator Concentration

In this study, the crystallization behavior of beeswax in grape seed oil in a wide range of cooling rates of 0.04, 0.08, 0.16, 0.33 and 0.66 (°C/min), from 85 to 25 °C and wax concentrations of 10, 15 and 20% were examined. Thermal behavior characteristics, texture, color and the crystal shapes of the samples were evaluated. The results showed that with increasing the percentage of wax in oleogel, the onset and melting temperatures increased in different treatments, so that the greatest increase was shown in the cooling rate of 0.16 °C/min. Temperatures of 45.90±0.46 and 46.8±0.30 for 10 wax concentration up to 62.70±0.2 and 65.80±0.17 for 20% wax concentration for onset and melting temperatures, respectively were measured. With increasing wax concentration, the factors of stiffness and adhesiveness also increased and this increase was more evident in the cooling rate of 0.66 °C/min, so that the stiffness and adhesiveness parameters increased the most at concentrations of 10% to 20%, respectively. Also, with slow cooling rate, samples with larger crystals were obtained. Color evaluation revealed that with increasing wax concentration, all color parameters except parameter a*, which did not show a significant difference, increased in all cooling rate treatments. The fat crystal engineering approach followed here offers the prospect of obtaining stronger structures at oleogelator concentrations and creating oleogel with desirable properties.