Biotechnology of lipids: The use of lipases for the structural modification of fats and oils.

Abstract

The food industry has introduced chemical and enzymatic procedures for the modification of fats and oils to allow the improvement of their organoleptic and/or nutritional properties. As chemical procedures have many drawbacks, the application of enzyme technology shows as a promising approach for the development of new fats and oil-derived products. Lipase-catalyzed interesterification reactions allow the structural modification of lipids by selectively changing the composition of a triacylglycerol under very mild and controlled conditions. This work reviews the main characteristics of lipase reactions, the use of lipases for interesterification procedures, and the advantages and limitations of lipase immobilization for the enzymatic modification of fats and oils. The use of lipases from different sources for fat splitting and the potential application of stereospecific lipases for the production of structured or designer lipids is also discussed.