At work we use a non-dairy powdered coffee whitener. According to the nutritional information on the back of the jar, it contains 30 g of fat per 100 g of whitener. The only thing obviously fatty or oily in the ingredients is vegetable oil.
Since the coffee whitener is 30% fat from vegetable oil, why does it feel like a completely dry powder? How come it doesn’t leave a greasy residue on the inside of the jar?
It’s dried/dehydrated to prevent spoiling to fast and the other 70% contains stuff like glucose, various emulsifiers, stabilizers and most likely some silicon dioxide as an anti-caking agent.
Yep, the same way heavy whipping cream (also about 30% fat) isn’t greasy or oily, just thick: it’s full of emulsifiers, which make oil and water molecules want to play nice together.
I thought emulsifiers helped to blend liquids. What purpose do they serve in something which has been dehydrated?
They specifically help to blend water and oil. Dehydrated, they can just lie in wait until the powder is hydrated, then do their thing. Dry cocoa mixes use this trick all the time, usually in the form of soy lecithin.
I’m afraid I still don’t see how this answers the question, then. The dehydration explains why the powder is not moist, and you say the emulsifiers do nothing until the powder comes in contact with water. So why isn’t the whitener greasy in the way other high-fat foods are? Without any water for the emulsifiers to bind to, shouldn’t the oil in the whitener retain its oily character? Or do emulsifiers also solidify oils in the absence of water?
Ah, I misunderstood what you were confused about. As to why powders with high fat content don’t feel greasy…beats the hell out of me. 
::Eyes the transfats suspiciously::
Only 30% of that stuff is actually fat, of which most likely 70-90% is saturated.
The remaining 70% are made up of mostly:
55-60% carbohydrates
1-4% protein
The rest is regulator stuff, like stabilizers, emulsifiers, anti caking agents & salts
Not all food with fat (like dried coconut flakes have 15%) feels greasy to touch and in its dried form the fat is bound to the stabilizers, emulsifiers, silicons.
Once you put that stuff in your mouth, it breaks down very quickly and you can feel and taste the fat then.
Coffee Mate ingredients:
CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (COCONUT AND/OR PALM KERNEL AND/OR SOYBEAN), SODIUM CASEINATE (A MILK DERIVATIVE)**, LESS THAN 2% OF DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM ALUMINOSILICATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, ANNATTO COLOR.
if the vegetable oil is fully hydrogenated, then it’s pretty hard and waxy at room temp. it wouldn’t likely feel oily. I do know that it won’t mix into cold liquids, the coffee has to be hot.