Current update on the influence of minor lipid components, shear and presence of interfaces on fat crystallization

• Minor components influences fat crystallization through templating effect and declustering mechanism.
• Shear affects both nanoscale structure and crystalline orientation.
• In presence of interfaces, emulsifiers can contribute to both Pickering stabilization and network development.

Fat crystal network plays a key role in the development of specific structure with desired physical, textural and sensorial properties of most lipid-based food products that are consumed on a regular basis. Therefore, a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon is necessary to assist food researchers to characterize the properties of food products and optimize the processing parameters in order to control the characteristics of final products as well as to lay a platform for future development of newer food products with added functionality. In this paper, we review the current understanding of fat crystallization that is relevant to food processing. Specifically, influence of minor lipid components on fat crystallization, effect of shear on crystallization kinetics and crystallization behaviour of fats at the interface are discussed.