Cocoa Butter and Its Alternatives: A Reveiw

Accepted: 08/03/2014 Abstract Cocoa butter (CB) is the byproduct of cocoa bean processing industry and is obtained from the mature bean from the Theobroma cacao plant. It is an important ingredient in the chocolate and other confectionery industries. It's valued for its unique physicochemical properties which is given by its peculiar fatty acid composition. The major triacylglycerols (TAG) present in CB is symmetrical and contains very less amount of highly unsaturated fatty acid. The major fatty acids present in it are palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid, but low amounts of lauric acid and myristic acid. Increasing demand and shortage of supply for CB, poor quality of individual harvests, economic advantages and some technological benefits have induce for the development of its alternative called cocoa butter replacer (CBR). In the CBRs the TAG compositions are similar but are not identical to genuine CB. Most of them are produced by either modification of natural fat or by their blending in different proportion. However, it couldn’t satisfy the consumer and fulfill the demand of confectionery industries. This review gives a brief idea about the processing of cocoa pod, the production of cocoa butter and its composition with fats that are commonly used as its Replacers.