Coconut lauric fats

Apart from butter or butter oil most fats that are used in biscuits are defined in terms of their physical and chemical properties. Fat suppliers are skilled at producing products with controlled physical and chemical properties from a range of raw materials. The baker can either buy fat on a physical and chemical specification, e.g. solid fat index, slip melting point, and not to contain lauric fat, or on an origin basis, e.g. to be coconut oil. The advantage of the botanical specification is that the item is a commodity and can be obtained from numerous sources. The disadvantage of this approach is that the product is tailored for a particular use. 

Cocoa butter substitutes are produced from lauric fats that are obtained from various species of palm tree, the main varieties being palm, which yields palm-kernel oil and coconut. These fats differ from non-laurics in that they contain 47-48%... 

Wafer cream formulae are the same, except that they always include much re-work from trimmings and they are applied warmer so that they can be spread thinly on the fragile wafer sheets (Table 6.33). The cream in wafer sandwiches is 70-75% of the product weight, and because the amount is so high and the wafer shells have a light delicate texture the SFC profile of lauric fats is essential. Coconut stearin is probably the ideal fat for this product. 

Palm kernel ell (palm seed oil or fat). An oil obtained from the seeds (kernels) of the palm oil tree (Elaeis guineensis) and related palm species, the fruit pulp of the palm oil tree furnishes palm oil. The worldwide production of P. in 1993 amounted to 1.8 million tons. Mp. 23-30°C. On account of its high contents of esterifled, saturated fatty acids of medium chain length, e. g. lauric acid (ca. 50%) and myristic acid (ca. 15%), P. resembles coconut fat (so-called lauric fats and oils that are rich in lauric acid and other medium-chain length fatty acids) other components ca-proic acid (hexanoic acid) (5%), caprylic acid (octa-noic acid) (3%), palmitic acid (6-9%), stearic acid (2-3%), oils (10-18%), and linoleic acid (1-3%). For the composition of the seed oils of other palm species, see Lir.. ... 

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]. 

Fats and oils may be synthesized in enantiomerically pure forms in the laboratory (30) or derived from vegetable sources (mainly from nuts, beans, and seeds), animal depot fats, fish, or marine mammals. Oils obtained from other sources differ markedly in their fatty acid distribution. Table 2 shows compositions for a wide variety of oils. One variation in composition is the chain length of the fatty acid. Butterfat, for example, has a fairly high concentration of short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids. Oils derived from cuphea are also a rich source of capric acid which is considered to be medium in chain length (32). Palm kernel and coconut oils are known as lauric oils because of their high content of C-12 saturated fatty acid (lauric acid). Rapeseed oil, on the other hand, has a fairly high concentration of long-chain (C-20 and C-22) fatty acids. 

Cocoa butter substitutes and equivalents differ greatly with respect to their method of manufacture, source of fats, and functionaHty they are produced by several physical and chemical processes (17,18). Cocoa butter substitutes are produced from lauric acid fats such as coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils by fractionation and hydrogenation from domestic fats such as soy, com, and cotton seed oils by selective hydrogenation or from palm kernel stearines by fractionation. Cocoa butter equivalents can be produced from palm kernel oil and other specialty fats such as shea and ilHpe by fractional crystallization from glycerol and selected fatty acids by direct chemical synthesis or from edible beef tallow by acetone crystallization. 

Methyl Ester-Based Processes. The fatty methyl esters are produced predominantly by the transesterification of fats and oils with methanol in the presence of an alkaline catalyst under very mild reaction conditions.l5a,b They are used in the production of lauric-type (Cl2) alcohols. The short-chain fatty methyl esters (C8-Cl0), produced as by-products via the fractional distillation of crude lauric-type (coconut, palm kernel) methyl esters, are converted to fatty acids via acidic or alkaline hydrolysis (Fig. 36.12). The hydrolysis of short-chain fatty methyl esters by stream splitting or Twitchell-type processes is not very efficient because of unfavorable equilibrium constants.16a,b... 

Vegetable fats, in contrast to the oils, are highly saturated, have low iodine values, and have high melting points. Coconut oil and palm kernel oil belong to the lauric acid fats. They contain large amounts of medium- and... 

Fatty acids consist of a hydrocarbon chain with a carboxylic acid at one end. They can be classified on the basis of the length of the hydrocarbon chain (Table 2.2) and whether there are any double bonds. Trivial names of fatty acids such as butyric, lauric, oleic and palmitic acids are in common use in the food industry. A form of short-hand is used to refer to triglycerides where POS is palmitic, oleic, stearic. If the chain length is the same an unsaturated fat will always have a lower melting point. Another classification of fats that is used is in terms of the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids. Saturated fats are fats without any double bonds. Many animal fats are saturated, but some vegetable fats, e.g. coconut oil, are saturated also. Mono-unsaturated fats include oils like olive oil but also some partially hydrogenated fats. Polyunsaturated fats have many double bonds and include sunflower oil. Because they are... 

Most commodity oils contain fatty acids with chain lengths between Cie and C22, with Cig fatty acids dominating in most plant oils. Palm kernel and coconut, sources of medium-chain fatty acids, are referred to as lauric oils. Animal fats have a wider range of chain length, and high erucic varieties of rape are rich in this C22 monoene acid. Potential new oil crops with unusual unsaturation or additional functionahty are under development. Compilations of the fatty acid composition of oils and fats (6, 9, 11, 12) and less-common fatty acids (13) are available. 

It is now known that not all saturated fatty acids are equally hypercholesterole-mic. For example, medium-chain saturated fatty acids of carbon length 8-10, as well as stearic acid (18 0), have little or no effect on serum cholesterol concentrations. In contrast, evidence indicates that palmitic acid (16 0), the principle fatty acid in most diets, can increase serum cholesterol concentrations in humans. However, in normocholesterolemic humans, dietary palmitic and oleic acids have been shown to exert similar effects on serum cholesterol, suggesting that only humans or animal species sensitive to dietary cholesterol and selected fats ( hyperresponders ) may exhibit significant changes in semm cholesterol in response to dietary fat intake. Myristic acid (14 0) and, to a lesser extent, lauric acid (12 0), which are relatively high in coconut oil, both can raise serum cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels. Overall, it is not clear why humans respond so differently to cholesterol or... 

The various triacylglycerol (TAG) components of coconut oil may be separated and quantified by gas chromatography with the use of stable silicon gum stationary phase under temperature-programed conditions and identified by reference to standard TAG solutions. The carbon number of a TAG component is the sum of carbon atoms of the fatty acids attached to the glycerol moiety. For example, the carbon numbers of trilaurin and oleodistearin are 36 and 54, respectively. The relative amounts of each TAG in a sample of fat serves to establish its identity. For coconut oil, this test may also serve to distinguish it from other lauric oils (see Table 4 and Figure 5). 

Much of the current interest in oleochemicals centers on the lauric type oils, coconut, palm, and pahn kernel oil because of the physical properties that these medium-chain fatty acids impart to the finished products. So the demand for the longer chain fatty acids, such as found in fish oils and animal fats and oils, is not as great in some markets, but might be essential in others. 

Laurie acid is a fatty carboxylic acid isolated from vegetable and animal fats or oils. For example, coconut oil and palm kernel oil both contain high proportions of lauric acid. Isolation from natural fats and oils involves hydrolysis, separation of the fatty acids, hydrogenation to convert unsaturated fatty acids to saturated acids, and finally distillation of the specific fatty acid of interest. 

Oleochemical demands. This book is concerned with the source and composition of vegetable oils for use in the food industry, but it must not be forgotten that some 14% of total oils and fats are used in the oleochemical industry. The fats most in demand for this purpose (including some that are not considered in this book) are the two lauric oils (coconut and palmkemel), tallow, palm (especially palm stearin), linseed and castor. In addition, most vegetable oils find some... 

The lauric oils stand apart in the world of oils and fats. There are few of them, they move on their own higher price plateau and they do not mix comfortably with the common commodity oils and fats. There are only two lauric oils among the 17 major oils and fats in world commerce coconut oil (CNO) and palmkernel oil (PKO) (Oil World Annual 2001). They are called laurics because lauric acid (12 0) is the major fatty acid in these oils. The laurics are comprised of about 50% of lauric acid, while no other oil contains more than 1% (except butter fat, which contains about 3%). 

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