Characterization of Cocoa Butter Equivalent from Formulated Hard Palm Oil Mid-fraction and Canola Oil Blend

Abstract

A search for an alternative to cocoa butter (CB) has increased due to premium price, uncertainty in supply and variability in quality problems. The study to find cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) as an alternative to CB from available and high nutritional oils or fats was carried out using enzymatic interesterification method. The objective of this study was to characterize the CBE obtained from hard palm oil mid-fraction (PMF) and canola oil blend using immobilized lipase from Rhizomucor miehei. The experiment was performed at hard PMF concentration of 50%, lipase load of 7.2% (based on weight of substrate) and reaction time of 2 hours. The characteristics observed were fatty acid profiles, triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, slip melting point (SMP) and solid fat content (SFC). CBE obtained exhibit higher percentage of linoleic acid (omega 6, 7.98%) and linolenic acid (omega 3, 2.47%) than CB (3.40% of linoleic acid) due to the addition of canola oil. TAG composition was 28.65% of palmitic-oleic-palmitic (POP), 19.52% of palmitic-oleic-stearic (POS), and 3.57% of stearic-oleic-stearic (SOS). SMP value of CBE (46.25°C) was higher than CB (32 – 35°C). The SFC value of CBE was different to CB. It was due to high amount of POP TAG, free fatty acid (FFA) or saturated saturated saturated (StStSt) TAGs in CBE produced and also lack amount of TAGs which has oleic acid at sn 2 position.