If it looks like cocoa butter, acts like cocoa butter and tastes like cocoa butter, then it probably is cocoa butter. Or is it? The growing use of Cocoa Butter Alternatives might make it hard to tell. Traditionally acting as the only vegetable fat in chocolate products, cocoa butter gives chocolate its texture, sharp melting behavior, high gloss, long shelf life and good flavor release characteristics, states Fuji Oil Europe, a producer of oils and fats for the chocolate and confectionery industry, on its web site. But cocoa butter comes with a price. Cocoa butter can be incompatible with other fat systems and has a limited melting profile, says Adam Lechter, product services and development manager, ADM Cocoa. It can also be costly and, unlike some Cocoa Butter Alternatives, it must be tempered. Although they are just stand-ins for cocoa butter, Cocoa Butter Alternatives can lend some flexibility to chocolate products. "By using these different Cocoa Butter Alternatives, you can develop coatings with higher melt points, higher bloom resistance and specific functionalities as in, you can tell them to be for either moulding or enrobing," says Ed Wilson, v.p. sales and marketing, AarhusKarlshamn (AAK) USA, Inc.
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