The recent industrial revolution requires graduates who perform both mentally and physically. For this reason, higher education continues to innovate and increase creativity according to industry needs. Likewise, the ideas and innovations of academics are required as solutions to problems faced by millennial society and industry. As was done by the Dipoengoro University (UNDIP) Vocational Industrial Chemical Engineering Technology Study Program (TRKI) lecturer, namely Dr. Ria Desiriani, ST, MT and Mohamad Endy Yulianto. ST, MT, who initiated healthy chocolate products from palm stearic acid and super olein.
Ria said that currently, demand for chocolate is increasing while production of cocoa butter (CB) as a raw material is decreasing due to climate and environmental changes. This has pushed the price of CB to increase fantastically, and as a result, several manufacturers are trying to find alternative fats to replace CB.
Cocoa butter (CB) is an important fat ingredient in making chocolate. At room temperature (20–25 °C) it is semi-solid and will melt completely below room temperature. The main components of fatty acids (FA) in CB are stearic acid (S, 33.3–40.2%), oleic acid (O, 32.7–37.0%), and palmitic acid (P, 24.1–33.7%), which mostly consist of three symmetric monounsaturated triacylglycerols (TAG): POP (13.8–21.8%), POS (26.3–44.8%), and SOS ( 20.0-29.4%).
Endy explained that “Cocoa butter equivalents (CBE) or cocoa butter equivalents are vegetable fats with good physical properties and chemical properties similar to CB and can then be used to replace CB partially or completely. CBE is made from a mixture of POP-rich fat obtained from two steps of palm stearin fractionation and SOS-rich fat obtained from fractionation in a ratio of 40:60 (%wt). CBE can be mixed with CB at levels of up to 40% by weight without negative effects on its hardness and melting properties.”
“In Indonesia, CBE is commercially produced from palm oil (refined bleached deodorized palm oil, RBDPO), which is multi-stage fractionated up to 5 times. The resulting product is known as hard palm midfraction (hard PMF), which has an iodine number of 33.8–36.2 Wijs. However, the time to produce CBE is relatively long, the costs are high, and the yield is low. Apart from CBE, lauric and non-lauric types of CBS have also been produced using hydrogenation and fractionation technology. “Non-lauric CBS produced from palm oil contains high levels of trans fatty acids (elaidic acid),” explained Ria. Super olein palm oil has an iodine number ranging from 60–64 Wijs with an oleic acid content of 42.6–16.03% and a linoleic acid content of 11.37–14.07%. Hydrogenation of super olein to oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids to stearic acid. Thus, superhydrogenated olein (HSOL) can be used as an acyl donor of palmitate and stearate for RBDPO in the synthesis of CBE that is low in trans fatty acids.
“Another method is the synthesis of POP fat as CBE through chemical interesterification of RBDPO and HSOL, followed by fractionation. “However, the resulting product still does not have characteristics similar to CBE,” said Endy. The disadvantage of CBE resulting from this idea compared to CB is that the solid fat content at 30°C is relatively low, while at 35°C and 40°C it is relatively high. This has an impact on its application in making chocolate because it is difficult to melt in the mouth. “However, this product is very suitable when applied to chocolate in tropical climates so that the chocolate does not melt easily at room temperature. “For this reason, the idea presented is to react with palm stearic acid and super olein enzymatically,” concluded Ria.
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