Hydrogenated oils-margarine, palm oil-shortening

Hi everyone, 

I have been searching hydrogenated oils for substitute. 

We have palm oil-shortening and margarine in the house.

Can we say all the margarines are hydrogenated oils? 

For the Palm oil- shortening, some of my sources shows palm oil-shortening is not, but some of other sources shows all the shortenings are hydrogenated?

I am little confused with hydrogenated oils. If there is Saturated fat, does it mean hydrogenation happened in the process to be able to make margarine? (even though only vegetable oils are listed in the ingredients, however there is saturated fat in the nutrition panel)

I hoping my question is clear.

Thank you for your answers.

Greetings Kubramilller,

The majority of vegetable oils go through the process of hydrogenation (fully or partially by converting unsaturated fat to saturated fat by adding hydrogen), so yes there will be saturated fats. One of the reasons for the hydrogenation is that it solidifies the fats in room temperature. So palm oil-shortening that is non-hydrogeneted does exist (hasn't undergone hydrogenation process), but it should be in a liquid phase.

The vast majority of non-hydrogenated vegetable oil derives from palm oil.

This is a general explanation of the things you asked, since the chemistry behind it goes deeper and depends on the oil you use and more importantly what you use it for.

Regards!

Thank you for your answer Evan X.

We make baked goods in our factory. Our margarine has palm oil and other vegetables oil, and on the nutrition panel shows the saturated fat content so that means the margarine is hydrogenated, in according what you explained for the hydrogenated oils?

On the other hand we use palm shortening, only ingredient that shows is palm oil however it is solid in the room temperature, will it mean is hydrogenated since it is solid? or not necessarily.

Again Thank you for your answer, these information are very good to know.

Yes, correctly it will propably be hydrogenated as it is a well-spread technique. To clarify it though, vegetable oils do have saturated fats, just not a high amount to turn from liquid to solid thus the hydrogenation process. However, there is a small chance that an alternative process can be used as I mention below for the palm oil, but not very likely since it needs the vegetable oils to contain a high enough amount of saturated fats.

For the palm oil shortening, hydrogenation is one way to achieve saturation (which causes solidfication in room temp). Since it contains plenty of saturated fat, the solidification could be achieved through a process that removes the unsaturated fats, so I can't safely deduce the process through which the shortening you use is produced and answer if it is hydrogenated or not.