Cocoa Butter Equivalents CBEs

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. 

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... 

Sal fat (Shorea robusta). This tree, which grows in Northern India, is felled for timber. Its seed oil is rich in stearic acid, and it can be used as a cocoa butter equivalent (CBE). The major acids are palmitic (2-8%), stearic (35 8%), oleic (35 2%), linoleic (2-3%), and arachidic acid (6-11%). Its major triacylglycerols are of the SUS type required of a cocoa butter equivalent. Sal olein is an excellent emolhent, and sal stearin, with POP 1%, POSt 13%, and StOSt 60%, is a superior cocoa butter equivalent (122-124). It is one of the six permitted fats (palm oil, iUipe butter, kokum butter, sal fat, shea butter, and mango kernel fat), which, in some countries at least, can partially replace cocoa butter in chocolate (86). 

The new European Chocolate Directive [14] allows the addition of up to 5% of vegetable fats other than cocoa butter (CB), the so-called cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs), in chocolate. CBEs resemble the chemical composition and physical properties of CB very closely, making them therefore extremely difficult to quantify and even in some cases to detect (especially at very low levels). There is a perceived need within official control laboratories for reliable analytical methods for the quantification (around the 5% level) of CBEs in chocolate, as Member States laws and administrative provisions need to comply with the new Chocolate Directive before August 2003. All proposed analytical methods have been evaluated by the JRC in collaboration with EU expert laboratories [15]. The performance of several methods has been compared and a final method based on the analysis of the main components, triglycerides, has been proposed for further validation. 

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]. 

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). 

The possible design of a SCO-producing process has been considered in some detail by Davies (1988,1992a,b) and Davies and Holdsworth (1992) for the development of a cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) process using Candida curvata. Davies (1992a) has identified three key areas that require successful development before large-scale production can be achieved. These are ... 

Fig. 8.14. Solid Fat Index curves of cocoa butter, cocoa butter equivalent (CBE, used as an extender), and higher-temperature-melting cocoa butter substitutes (CBSs).

TABLE 3. Fatty Acid Profiles of CBE-SCOs—Microbial Oils for use as a Cocoa Butter Equivalent—in Comparison with Cocoa Butter. 

Cocoa butter equivalents or extenders (CBE). These are fats that are fully compatible with cocoa butter (chemical and physical properties similar to those of cocoa butter). 

The proposed EEC definition of a CBE (cocoa butter equivalent) fat includes a limit on the percentage of SOS-type triacylglycerols in the fat. To determine the percentage of SOS, a lipolysis method as described in Section 6.2.17 followed by 1,3-random, 2-random calculation would be unsuitable except for whole natural fats. 

Palm midfraction (PMF), a fraction of palm oil whose melting points are between those of palm stearin and palm olein [77], has been employed for vegetable-fat-based creams as well in the production of cocoa butter equivalent fats (CBEs) used in chocolate [78]. The effects of additions of SOEs and PGEs on the crystallization of PMF in O/W emulsions were studied recently [79]. Figure 13a shows the isothermal crystallization behavior of PMF in oil-in-water emulsion at 10°C without (pure) and with the addition of 1 wt% S-170. It is obvious that the V values of the pure emulsion are always smaller than in emulsions with S-170... 

Solvent fractionation of palm oil from acetone has been used extensively for manufacture of high quality palm midfractions (PMFs) for confectionery use, particularly in cocoa butter equivalents or extenders (CBEs) [43]. Acetone frac-... 

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