FURTHER STUDY OF THE USEFULNESS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHORTENING WHEN INCORPORATED IN BISCUITS AT VARIOUS LEVELS AND WITH DIFFERENT BAKING TEMPERATURES
One hundred and ninety-two 30-day-old male white rats were fed diets containing four different types of shortening (compound animal-vegetable, blended vegetable, hydrogenated vegetable, and lard) incorporated at 0, 8, 16, and 24% levels by weight and baked at 375° and 425° F. Diets were mixtures of flour, milk powder, shortening, salt, and bone meal with supplementary allowances of vitamins A, D, and B1. The proportion of ingredients was adjusted to maintain protein at 16% by weight. The relative nutritive value of the diets was measured by growth of rats, digestibility of the diet, and the proportion of fat deposited in the livers and carcasses.Gains decreased with increasing fat level, apparently owing to a reduction of the proportion of protein to non-protein calories from the replacement of carbohydrate by fat.Digestibility of the fat component was unaffected by baking temperatures or level of fat in the ration. Lard was slightly more digestible than the other types which included vegetable fats. Rats fed diets baked at 425° F. made slower gains than those on the diets baked at 375° F. This was not traceable primarily to heat damage to the fat but more probably to some effect on the protein fraction.