Edible fat blends

A method for preparing an olive oil based product, comprising (1) at least one of the virgin olive oils and (2) a blend of sterol and/or stanol fatty acid esters, wherein the fatty acid portion of the blend contains less than 5 weight- % saturated fatty acids and more than 60 weight- % polyunsaturated fatty acids, the method comprising

• (a) esterifying a sterol and/or stanol with a source of fatty acids containing less than 5 weight- % saturated fatty acids and more than 60 weight- % polyunsaturated fatty acids, to produce a blend of sterol and/or stanol fatty acid esters and
• (b) dissolving the blend in at least one of the virgin olive oils, to obtain the olive oil based product.

A method for preparing an olive oil based product, comprising (1) at least one of the virgin olive oils and (2) a blend of sterol and/or stanol fatty acid esters, wherein the fatty acid portion of the blend contains less than 5 weight- % saturated fatty acids and more than 60 weight- % polyunsaturated fatty acids, the method comprising

• (a) dissolving plant stanol and/or sterol fatty acid esters having fatty acids derived from high PUFA vegetable oils in at least one of the virgin olive oils and
• (b) crystallising higher melting lipids from the oil obtained from the dissolving step at a temperature between 0-301° C., to obtain the olive oil based product.

A plant sterol and/or stanol fatty acid ester blend, wherein the fatty acid portion of the blend comprises more than 60 weight- % polyunsaturated fatty acids and less than 5 weight- % saturated fatty acids, wherein less than 2 weight- % of the blend comprises stearic acid.