Impacts of Bleaching and Packed Column Steam Refining on Cocoa Butter Properties

摘要

Natural and alkalized cocoa butters were bleached and subsequently steam refined in a continuous packed column at temperatures ranging between 160 and 220 °C.None of the processes evaluated gave rise to any detectable formation of trans fatty acids,interesterification or polymerization.For the pressures and steam injection rates used,packed-column steam refining required a minimum temperature of 170 °C to achieve acceptable taste.Bleaching was highly effective in preventing darkening at high steam-refining temperatures,as well as in removing alkaloids,such as theobromine and caffeine,before steam refining.The impacts on the crystallization properties of cocoa butter were studied using DSC and P-NMR.The more significant changes in crystallization kinetics and equilibrium values can be reliably predicted on the basis of FFA removal from the butter.