Cocoa butter alternatives

The composition of chocolate is subject to a number of international laws that have relevance to the composition and authenticity of the cocoa butter 

Non-cocoa fats are added to certain chocolates for a number of reasons. Their introduction was prompted by a sharp rise in the cost of cocoa butter in the 1960s which coincided with the emergence of technologies suitable to analyse butter composition and produce substitute fats. Principally, chocolate manufacture can be made more economical by using more stable processing conditions when other fats are added. The variations in processing required by changes in the chemical composition and physical properties of different batches of cocoa butters, and the effects of erratic harvests, can be ameliorated by the incorporation of the tailored non-cocoa fats. 

The non-cocoa fats used in confectionery are mixtures known as cocoa butter alternatives (CBAs), of which the most important are cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs). These are formulated from non-hydrogenated fat fractions with a tri-acylglycerol composition almost identical with cocoa butter and which are miscible with cocoa butter in all proportions. Other alternative fats such as cocoa butter replacers (CBRs) and cocoa butter substitutes (CBSs) are used, particularly in the manufacture of specialized forms of chocolate application such as coatings. 

Triacylglycerols are the most important components of both cocoa butter and CBAs. In cocoa butter they are responsible for the characteristic rapid 

For CBE manufacture, fractionation is preferred to hardening by hydrogenation, which causes melting behaviour unsuitable for bar chocolate. Hydrogenation is however used to produce CBR and CBS from palm or palm kernel oil and rapeseed oil. Fats containing a substantial proportion of lauric acid (lauric fats) which are not compatible with cocoa butter are used in CBS and CBR. 

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Kerti, K. (2000) Investigating isothermal DSC method to distinguish between cocoa butter and cocoa butter alternatives. J. Therm. Anal. Calorim., 63, 205-219. 

Chem. Descrip. Hydrogenated and fractionated non-lauric fats and oils Uses Cocoa butter alternative for coatings on cakes Features Good gloss and bloom stability flexible Cebes 21 -20 [Aarhus Oliefabrik A/S]... 

Similar to cocoa butter replacers but generally based on coconut and palm kernel oils. See also cocoa butter alternatives, cocoa butter and confectionery fat. 

These can be the natural material itself one example would be pieces of vanilla pod or an extract, e.g. vanilla extract. Extracts can be prepared in several ways. One is to distil or to steam distil the material of interest. Another is to extract the raw material with a solvent, e.g. ethyl alcohol. Alternatively, some materials are extracted by coating the leaves of a plant with cocoa butter and allowing the material of interest to migrate into the cocoa butter. These techniques are also used in preparing perfumery ingredients, indeed materials like orange oil are used in both flavours and perfumes. 

The main current potential application of lipase-catalyzed fat-modification processes is in the production of valuable confectionery fats for instance, alternative methods of obtaining cocoa-butter equivalents by converting cheap palm-oil fats and stearic acid to cocoa-butter-like fats. The reaction is executed in a water-poor medium, such as hexane, to prevent hydrolysis. At least one commercial apphcation exists. Loders Croklaan (Unilever) has an enzymatic interesterification plant in Wormerveer, the Netherlands. Many other new potential applications of lipases have been proposed of which some will certainly be economically feasible. Examples and details can be found in chapter 9 of this book. 

Stearic acid is a long chain SFA present, to varying degrees, in virtually all edible fats and oils. Table IV provides the fatty acid composition of fats and oils commonly consumed by humans. The most abundant food sources of stearic acid in the American diet are beef fat and cocoa butter (chocolate). Cocoa butter is valued by chocolate manufacturers because it remains solid at room temperature but dissolves quickly at body temperature, a unique characteristic of chocolate that is due largely to stearic acid. During the last few decades as cocoa butter prices and supplies have fluctuated, food companies began looking for alternative oils that could provide equivalent amounts of stearic acid in order to retain the desirable physical characteristics. Several... 

M. Lipp, E. Anklam, Review of cocoa butter and alternative fats for use in chocolate. Part A. Compositional data, Food chem. 62 (1998) 73-97. 

Alternative vegetable fat formulations intended legitimately to replace a small proportion of the cocoa butter in chocolate are difficult to distinguish from... 

Tocopherols and tocotrienols are precursors of vitamin E and are important antioxidants in oils. Their reactivity means that they are not stable to many oil processing procedures, including deodorization, which reduces levels by up to 15%. Levels of tocopherols in cocoa butter are usually about 100-300 mg/kg, with the y-isomer (IV) being the major component (about 90%), but they can be entirely absent (Lipp et al., 2001) (Figure 3.3). Tocotrienols have a similar structure with unsaturation of alternate bonds along the alkyl chain. Only y-tocotrienol is found in cocoa butter and this at low levels (< 5 mg/kg). Palm oil is notably high in tocopherols and tocotrienols, of which a-tocopherol and a-tocotrienol make up 20% to 30% each with most of the remainder as y-tocotrienol. 

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) can be used as a rapid alternative to differential scanning calorimetry in the determination of the solid fat content and studies on the melting behaviour. The determination is based on detection of the different populations of protons in solid and liquid phases, which indicates the hardness of the fat. Hernandez and Rutledge (1994b) used low resolution pulse NMR to compare melting curves of roasted and non-roasted cocoa butters from Africa, Indonesia and South America. Discriminant analysis techniques showed... 

Cocoa butter (CB) has a challenging chemistry and has attracted many efforts to develop lower cost, acceptable alternatives. The following definitions provide a quick introduction to this field (1) cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) are compounded mostly from tropical oils other than palm. Because their melting and crystallization properties closely resemble CB, they are compatible as diluents at all levels of substitution (2) cocoa butter replacers (CBRs) are made from nondairy oils (typically soybean, cottonseed, or palm) partially hydrogenated for maximum trans-CIS isomer formation to acquire a steep melting profile. They are best used for enrobing bakery products, but their melting profiles can be improved by chill fractionation and (3) cocoa butter substitutes (CBSs) are made primarily from... 

The historical uncertainty in the cocoa butter supply and the volatility in cocoa butter prices depending on fluctuating cocoa bean prices forced confectioners to seek other alternatives, which may have a stabilizing influence on the prices of cocoa butter. Ever increasing demand for chocolate and chocolate-type products increases the demand for cocoa beans from year to year. However, it is difficult to predict the supply of cocoa beans. This ensures a continuing need for economical... 

Continuous interesterification processes exist but to date none have been commercialized. Interesterification is generally performed in small batches by specialty processors. An alternate method of increasing interest is directed interesterification using enzymes. The process is generally applied to palm-oil-based materials such as cocoa butter substitutes and to coconut oils. There is some concern about the effectiveness of interesterification with physical refined oils as low levels of FFA must be present or the reaction will not proceed as planned (5). Although not a hazardous process, interesterification is often included in the hydrogenation section of the refinery because of the similarity of the reactors. 

Identification of cocoa butter and alternative fats in chocolate Moisture and fat determination to monitor drying and coating processes of exudates... 

Increases in the price of cocoa butter have led to a search for alternative fats for use in manufacturing chocolate. Biino and Carlisi suggested determining illipe butter in cocoa butter blends by measuring the sigmasterol/campesterol ratio and the POS/POP and SOS/POP triglyceride ratios. 

Schenk H, Visser P, Peschar R (2006) Alternative precrystallization of cocoa butter. The Manirfacturing... 

Food industries are looking for alternative fats to cocoa butter (CB) from natural matrices that are denoted as cocoa butter replacers (CBRs), cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) and cocoa butter substitutes (CBSs) fat [41 83], CBRs are defined as non-lauric fats that could replace cocoa butter either partially or completely in the chocolate or other food products. On the other hand, a cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) is a type of fat that has a very similar chemical composition, but its triglycerides derive from other source than cocoa beans, such as palm kernel oil, palm oil, mango seed fat, kokum butter, sal fat, shea butter, illipe butter, soya oil, rape seed oil, cotton oil, ground nut oil and coconut oil [43]. 

Jahmnl, MHA Zaidul, ISM Norulaini, NAN Sahena, F Jinap, S Azmir, J et al. Cocoa butter fats and possibilities of substitution in food products concerning cocoa varieties, alternative som-ces, extraction methods, composition, and characteristics. J... 

Hard fat, the alternative for cocoa butter, is less sensitive to rancidity and shows substantially less modificatirMis. 

Cocoa butter has enjoyed a price as high as US 8600/ton in the mid-1980s (Moreton, 1988b Smit et al., 1992) which made it an attractive proposition for several SCO groups to consider as a target. Cocoa butter, however, now (1993) sells at approx. US 3000/tonne which has made it difficult, if not impossible, for these alternative processes to be run economically. Nevertheless, considerable attempts were made in the 1980s to attain a satisfactory cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) yeast oil. The price of a CBE from palm oil fractionation is usually fixed at about 80% of the price of cocoa butter itself and thus a yeast CBE will have to be priced even lower (see section 9.7). 

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