Confectionery fat

Edible Oil. For edible uses, oilseed oils are processed into salad and cooking oils, shortenings, margarines, and confectionery fats such as for candy, toppings, icings, and coatings (73). These products are prepared by a series of steps, as outlined for soybean oil in Figure 6. 

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. 

Little information has been published on the climatic and geographical factors affecting the composition of CBA fats. It can be assumed, however, that components which vary in cocoa butter with location, etc., also change in other confectionery fats, although these effects are nullified somewhat by refining and fractionation. Comprehensive details of the acylglycerol and fatty acid composition of illipe butters from several Shorea species are presented with description of cultivation and harvesting in Blicher-Mathiesen (1994) and some details of the cultivation and uses of shea have been described by Ruiz Mendez and Huesa Lope (1991). 

Today, mass spectrometry offers an attractive alternative as a detector to HPLC. Newer techniques for linking HPLC systems with mass spectrometers directly via atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and electrospray interfaces should see an expansion of this analytical tool in the analysis of confectionery fats, a field in which it has not yet been applied. Triacylglycerols... 

The presence of another triterpene alcohol, taraxasterol, has been reported in shea (Itoh et al, 1979 Dencausse, 1995), and also in illipe and sal fat (Soulier et al, 1990). These relatively minor sterols have been little studied or reported and should be included in the analysis of sterolic fractions of confectionery fats. 

Infrared and Raman spectroscopy techniques have also been shown to be of value in determining oil authenticity, particularly when based on the degree of saturation (Aparicio and Baeten, 1998 Bertran et al., 2000), but these methods have not yet been substantially applied to cocoa butter and confectionery fats. 

Chaudhuri, P.G., Chakrabarty, M.M. and Bhattacharyya, D.K. (1983) Modification of some tree borne seed fats for the preparation of high priced confectionery fats. Fette Seif. Anstrichm., 85(6), 224-227. 

Crews, C., Calvet-Sarret, R. and Brereton, P. (1999) Steroidal hydrocarbons in refined confectionery fats. Journal of Chromatogr. A, 847(1—2), 179—185. 

Yella Reddy, S. and Prabhakar, J.V. (1989) Confectionery fats from sal (Shorea robusta) fat and Phulwara (Madhuca butyracea) butter. Food Chem., 34, 131-139. 

Timms, R.E. (2003). Confectionery Fats Handbook. The Oily Press, Bridgewater, England. 

Bystrom, C.E., and Hartel, R.W. (1994). Evaluation of milk fat fractionation and modification techniques for ereating eoeoa butter replaeers. Lebens. Wissen. Technol. 27, 142-150. Chapman, G.M., Akehurst, E.E., and Wright, W.B. (1971). Cocoa butter and confectionery fats. Studied using programmed temperature x-ray diffraetion and differential scanning calorimetry. J. Amer. Oil Chemists Soc. 48, 824-830. 

Duck, W. (1964). The measurement of unstable fat in finished chocolate. Maraj//ac. Confectionery Fats. 35, 67-72. 

Interesterihcahon has a number of applications in the food industry. Chemical interesterihcation is used commercially to produce modihed edible fats and oils for margarines and spreads, shortenings, confectionery fats, reduced-calorie fats and oils, and infant formula. 

This category offers a range of confectionery fats with different levels of physical properties, but all having triacylglycerol compositions that make them incompatible with cocoa butter i.e. they are aU used in formulations with cocoa powder, mainly for compound coating. 

The most recent monograph on confectionery fats was developed by Society of Chemical Industry UK out of a symposium held in Oct. 1996 and chaired by the Author. (7). 

W. Hamm and R. E. Timms, eds.. Production and Application of Confectionery Fats, Society of Chemical Industry and Lipid Technology, 1997. 

Padley, F.B., Chocolate and Confectionery Fats, in Upid Technologies and Applications, edited by F.D. Gunstone and F.B. Padley, Marcel Dddcer, New York, 1997, pp. 391-432. 

---