Preparation of low‐diacylglycerol cocoa butter equivalents by hexane fractionation of palm stearin and shea butter

Herein, we prepared 1,3‐dipalmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl glycerol (POP)‐rich fats with reduced levels of diacylglycerols (DAGs), adversely affecting the tempering of chocolate, via two‐step hexane frac-tionation of palm stearin. DAG content in the as‐prepared fats was lower than that in POP‐rich fats obtained by previously reported conventional two‐step acetone fractionation. Cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) were fabricated by blending the as‐prepared fats with 1,3‐distearoyl‐2‐oleoyl glycerol (SOS)‐rich fats obtained by hexane fractionation of degummed shea butter. POP‐rich fats achieved under the best conditions for the fractionation of palm stearin had a significantly lower DAG content (1.6 w/w%) than that in the counterpart (4.6 w/w%) prepared by the previously reported method. The CBEs fabricated by blending the POP‐ and SOS‐rich fats in a weight ratio of 40:60 contained 63.7 w/w% total symmetric monounsaturated triacylglycerols, including 22.0 w/w% POP, 8.6 w/w% palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐3‐stearoyl‐rac‐glycerol, 33.1 w/w% SOS, and 1.3 w/w% DAGs, which was not sub-stantially different from the DAG content in cocoa butter (1.1 w/w%). Based on the solid‐fat content results, it was concluded that, when these CBEs were used for chocolate manufacture, they blended with cocoa butter at levels up to 40 w/w%, without distinctively altering the hardness and melting behavior of cocoa butter.