{"id":2176,"date":"2012-03-06T15:31:10","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T21:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2014-06-04T11:19:49","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T16:19:49","slug":"coming-soon-the-frankenfurter-ethylcellulose-in-the-oleogel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/03\/06\/coming-soon-the-frankenfurter-ethylcellulose-in-the-oleogel\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming soon, the ‘Frankenfurter’–ethylcellulose in the oleogel!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Linked<\/a>Canadian scientists have found a way to make\u00a0frankfurters ‘healthier.’\u00a0 Healthier??\u00a0 That’s what they<\/em> call it.\u00a0 They use “vegetable oil and a gelling agent instead of animal fat, without altering the texture.”<\/p>\n

Why do they call it healthier?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at what they call ‘healthier.’\u00a0\u00a0They have replaced the animal fat with ethylcellulose in an oleogel, and they insist you can’t tell the difference in chewiness or hardness between this oleogel\u00a0and regular animal fat frankfurters.\u00a0 Yes, I know,\u00a0most\u00a0commercial frankfurters\u00a0usually aren’t real food.\u00a0 They’re made with floor scrapings and\u00a0bits and pieces\u00a0that we wouldn’t eat if we\u00a0knew where they came from, but it is<\/em> possible to make good healthy sausages–including frankfurters–with meats, healthy\u00a0fats, and real seasonings.\u00a0 These scientists seem to be mostly concerned about texture, about fooling us into thinking we’re eating\u00a0real food\u00a0when what we really have is ethylcellulose in our oleogel, not food at all.\u00a0 They praise this new process because they can “easily replace two-thirds of the saturated fat”\u00a0 and still have “a desirable texture.”\u00a0 Aside from the fact that saturated\u00a0fat is not bad for you\u00a0(if it’s not\u00a0man-made trans fat),\u00a0is this new ‘frankenfurter’ really okay just because we can’t tell the difference between oleogel and real sausage?<\/p>\n

What foods\u00a0contain\u00a0ethylcellulose?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Did you know that ethylcellulose is a widely used food additive?\u00a0 What foods have ethylcellulose in them?\u00a0 Here’s just a few in a long, long list<\/a>\u00a0of foods where, according to\u00a0World Health Organization food standards, ethylcellulose may be added: cheeses,\u00a0condensed milk, sorbets and sherbets, canned or bottled vegetables, pre-cooked pastas,\u00a0pizza, rolled oats, vinegars, mustards, and soups.\u00a0 In short, it looks like it’s probably already in many\u00a0processed foods.\u00a0 The frankfurter ‘food’\u00a0product is just a new\u00a0place to use ethylcellulose. \u00a0We’ve found another good reason, as if we needed any more reasons, to avoid processed foods.<\/p>\n

What exactly is\u00a0ethylcellulose?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dow Chemical says,<\/a>\u00a0“Ethylcellulose polymers are derived from and have the polymeric \u201cbackbone\u201d of cellulose, a naturally occurring polymer. They are inert, high purity powders with no caloric value and are virtually colorless, odorless, and tasteless.”\u00a0 Here’s how they are used: “Ethylcellulose polymers are used in a variety of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, foods, ceramics, pastes, inks, and specialty coatings.”\u00a0 The process of making ethylcellulose involves many steps, including “treating cellulose with an alkaline solution to produce alkali cellulose, which is then reacted with ethyl chloride, yielding crude ethylcellulose polymers.”\u00a0 Sounds better all the time, doesn’t it?\u00a0 Can’t wait to try it?<\/p>\n

Well then,\u00a0what is an oleogel?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now we get to the real ‘meat’ of the new process.\u00a0 The ethylcellulose is just part, about 10%, of the oleogel that’s replacing the animal fat.\u00a0 ScienceDirect says<\/a> “Oleogels may be defined as lipophilic liquid and solid mixtures, in which solid lipid materials (oleogelators) with lower concentrations (<10 wt.%) can entrap bulk liquid oil by ways of the formation of network of oleogelators in the bulk oil.”<\/p>\n

The oleogel that’s used in the new sausage\/frankfurter process is a combination of about 10% ethylcellulose and 90% vegetable oil.\u00a0 The ethylcellulose is apparently an execellent\u00a0organogelator (what’s that?) for vegetable oils.\u00a0 It has something to do with turning the oil into a gel, thickening it, I guess.\u00a0 We’ve seen how ethylcellulose is made, what do they do to the vegetable oil?\u00a0 The Canadian scientists found that oleogel made with canola oil compared best with\u00a0animal fat frankfurters.\u00a0 Here’s a description<\/a> of the gelation process:<\/p>\n

“An edible oleogel comprising an oil, ethylcellulose and a surfactant is prepared by combining ethylcellulose with an edible oil and a surfactant, and heating the mixture to a temperature above the glass transition temperature of the ethylcellulose. Once the ethylcellulose has fully dissolved and the solution is clear, it is allowed to cool and set as a gel. The resulting oleogel is homogeneous, elastic, substantially anhydrous, and has a gelation temperature below 100\u00b0C. It can be used as a fat substitute in foods.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this is called food??\u00a0\u00a0The scariest thing about the ‘Frankenfurter’ is that this kind of ‘food’\u00a0isn’t really new at all.\u00a0 If you eat processed foods or at fast food restaurants, you are probably\u00a0ALREADY<\/em> eating ‘Frankenfoods.’\u00a0 These certainly aren’t REAL FOOD!<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0when\u00a0an oleogel is made with canola, corn, or soy\u00a0oil, it is also most likely genetically engineered.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/em><\/p>\n

A K Zetzl, A G Marangoni and S Barbut, Mechanical properties of ethylcellulose oleogels and their potential for saturated fat reduction in frankfurters,\u00a0Food Funct., 2012, DOI: 10.1039\/c2fo10202a<\/a>
\nDow Chemical, Product Safety Assessment, Ethocel ™ Ethylcellulose Polymers<\/a>
\nLakmali Samuditha K. Dassanayake, Dharma R. Kodali, S. Ueno, Formation of olegels based on edible lipid materials<\/a>
\nCanadian Patents Database, Polymer Gelation of Oils<\/a>
\nCodex alimentarius, Food Additive Details<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian scientists have found a way to make\u00a0frankfurters ‘healthier.’\u00a0 Healthier??\u00a0 That’s what they call it.\u00a0 They use “vegetable oil and a gelling agent instead of animal fat, without altering the texture.” Why do they call it healthier? Let’s take a …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,80,19],"tags":[131,128,126,405,35,129,127,130],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gmos","category-health","category-real-food","tag-animal-fat","tag-ethylcellulose","tag-frankenfood","tag-gmos","tag-healthy-fats-2","tag-oleogel","tag-real-food-2","tag-vegetable-oil"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/linked-hotdogs.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-z6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5705,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions\/5705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}