Abstract: Interest in oleogel as a promising alternative to traditional hydrogenated vegetable oil has increasingly grown in recent years due to its low content of saturated fatty acids and zero trans fatty acids. In this research, refined soybean oil was used as base oil and added with a 1:1 mixture of β-sitosterol and lecithin as gelling agent, yielding oleogel-based margarine. The effect of gelling agent concentration and water content on textural and rheological properties, micro-network structure and crystallinity of oleogel-based margarine was studied. The results showed that a homogeneous margarine system could be formed at a lower gelling agent concentration with increasing water content. As gelling agent concentration and water content increased, so did the hardness, elasticity and crystallization degree of the margarine. Moreover, its three-dimensional network structure was more complete and the contact area between oil and water increased, thereby resulting in more uniform and stable system with higher hardness and elasticity.

Key words: oleogel, β-sitosterol, lecithin, margarine