Abstract
Summary: Interesterification of milk fats resulted in increased softening points, hardness and high melting glycerides (HMG). Increasing the content of trans-unsaturated acyl groups in milk fat resulted in increased softening points and hardness. While the increased solid fat content after interesterification occurred mostly at the higher measuring temperatures, the increase due to isomerization occurred mainly at the lower measuring temperatures. However, in both cases hardness was increased at all measuring temperatures. These results indicate that glyceride structure and trans-unsaturated acyl content influence the physical properties of the solidified fat.