Preparation of organogel with tea polyphenols complex for enhancing the antioxidation properties of edible oil

Food-grade organogels are semisolid systems with immobilized liquid edible oil in a three-dimensional network of self-assembled gelators, and they are supposed to have a broad range of potential applications in food industries. In this work, an edible organogel with tea polyphenols was developed, which possesses a highly effective antioxidative function. To enhance the dispersibility of the tea polyphenols in the oil phase, a solid lipid-surfactant-tea polyphenols complex (organogel complex) was first prepared according to a novel method. Then, a food-grade organogel was prepared by mixing this organogel complex with fresh peanut oil. Compared with adding free tea polyphenols, the organogel complex could be more homogeneously distributed in the prepared organogel system, especially under heating condition. Furthermore, the organogel loading of tea polyphenols performed a 2.5-fold higher antioxidation compared with other chemically synthesized antioxidants (butylated hydroxytoluene and propyl gallate) by evaluating the peroxide value of the fresh peanut oil based organogel in accelerated oxidation conditions.