Danish scientists concoct fat-free whipped cream out of lactic acid bacteria

The human love affair with whipped cream goes back to at least the 16th century and is a staple of all our favorite holiday desserts. Is that slice of Thanksgiving pumpkin pie the same as the one before it? Whipped cream contains a lot of saturated fat. It's fluffy and pleasurable to eat, but it's not great for our health and dairy farming is a major source of greenhouse gases. Food scientists at the University of Copenhagen decided to look at low-fat alternatives. A recent paper in the journal Food Hydrocolloids states that they created a fat-free prototype. The authors think that the whipped topping on our holiday desserts could be made from plants or beer-making waste.

Jens Risbo is a food scientist at the University of Copenhagen. We base a beloved food product on good bugs. This is the first time it has ever been seen. This is beneficial because it is a renewable resource grown in a tank and it creates a healthier product.

Whipped cream is a type of liquid foam that can be used for hair styling and shaving. A collection of complex molecule that link together to stiffen the froth into a substantial foam is what makes such foams. The thin liquid film walls that separate bubbles are strengthened by the use of the surfactant. Whipped cream is made from cream with its high fat content.

In 1948, a clothing salesman namedBunny Lapin figured out how to deliver whipped cream from a can and introduce the world to Reddi-Wip. The gas is put in the aerosol can under pressure. The mixture is propelled from the can by nitrous oxide when the valve is open. In non- dairy varieties of Reddi-Wip, the cream is replaced by vegetable oil, which has an even higher fat content.

It's difficult to come up with a healthy alternative to a treat. Getting the texture right is the most difficult part of developing an alternative food. There is a high saturated fat content in whipped cream that makes it possible to whip the cream stiff. How can we create an alternative that doesn't have the high fat content but still has the right consistency? This is where we need to be innovative.

Four ingredients were used in Risbo and his colleagues' experiments. Lactic acidbacteria are abundant in nature and can be found in plants and in human/ animal mucus. They are an ideal building block for food and are roughly the same size as the fat in whipping cream.

Two different types ofbacteria were used to make the soft and stiff versions of the prototype whipped cream. The cream produced by the LBC strain is more stiff and liquid than the one produced by the LBD strain.

The foams were evaluated for their texture and foamy characteristics rather than their taste. canisters of Lacti-Wip won't be on store shelves any time soon. Experiments gave valuable insight into how to create a non- dairy whipped cream alternative.

Risbo said that they have shown thatbacteria can be used to create structures. It's possible to use many other things from nature now that we know which surface properties are important. Small building blocks that we extract from plants may be the reason for this. The product would be very sustainable if this happened.

The food hydrocolloids are in the book. 10.1016/j.foodhyd.