Evaluation of high oleic-high stearic sunflower hard stearins for cocoa butter equivalent formulation Miguel A. Bootello a , Richard W. Hartel b , Rafael Garcés a , Enrique Martínez-Force a , Joaquín J. Salas a,⇑ a Instituto de la Grasa (CSIC), Av. Padre García Tejero, 4, 41012 Sevilla, Spain b University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Food Science, Madison, WI 53706, USA article info Article history: Received 25 October 2011 Received in revised form 6 February 2012 Accepted 7 March 2012 Available online 16 March 2012 Keywords: Cocoa butter equivalents High oleic-high stearic sunflower oil Shea stearin Isosolid diagram Phase behaviour abstract Cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) are produced from vegetable fats by blending palm mid fraction (PMF) and tropical butters coming from shea, mango kernel or kokum fat. In this regard, high oleic-high stearic (HOHS) sunflower hard stearins from solvent fractionation can be used in CBE production since their compositions and physical properties are similar to those found in the above-mentioned tropical butters. In this work, three sunflower hard stearins (SHS) ranging from 65% to 95% of disaturated triacylglycerols and a shea stearin (used as reference) were blended with PMF to evaluate their potential use in CBEs for- mulation. Isosolid phase diagrams of mixtures of PMF/SHS showed eutectic formation for SHS 65 and SHS 80, but monotectic behaviour with softening effect for SHS 95. Three CBEs from SHS and shea stearin were formulated according to phase behaviour diagrams and solid fat content data at 25 °C. Isosolid phase diagrams of mixtures of these CBEs with cocoa butter showed no eutectic behaviour. Therefore, CBEs elaborated from SHS exhibited full compatibility with cocoa butter. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Cocoa butter (CB) is an important ingredient for chocolate and other confectionery products, having a major influence on their organoleptic and physical properties. CB, as the continuous phase in chocolate, supports the nonfat ingredients (Smith, 2001) and is responsible for much of the snap, gloss, appearance, mouthfeel, and flavour release typical of this product. At the same time, CB influences the shelf-life of chocolate and storage condition require- ments (Bigalli, 1988). Cocoa butter contains three main fatty acids: palmitic, stearic and oleic acid (Gunstone & Hardwood, 2007). The saturated fatty acids, palmitic and stearic, are predominantly found in the sn-1 and sn-3 positions of the glycerol backbone, with the unsaturated oleic acid occupying the sn-2 central position. This dis- tribution results in a triacylglycerol (TAG) composition rich in disaturated species, with 1,3-dipalmitoyl-2-oleoyl glycerol (POP), 1-palmitoyl-3-stearoyl-2-oleoyl glycerol (POSt) and 1,3-distea- royl-2-oleoyl glycerol (StOSt) being the most abundant TAG species. This TAG composition is responsible for the characteristic melting profile of cocoa butter, highly solid at 20 °C, sharp melting between 20 and 30 °C, and complete melting by 30–35 °C(Shukla, 1995). This melting profile is desirable for confectionery applications. Among tropical fats, cocoa butter is one of the most valuable; however, its production is hampered by its difficult cultivation, low productivity and pest attacks. On the other hand, world cocoa prices have been increasing in recent years due to a strong demand in emerging countries, and changes in chocolate consumption to- wards higher cocoa content chocolate products (Afoakwa, 2010). For that reason, fats alternative to cocoa butter have been devel- oped by food researchers (Lipp & Anklam, 1998). Cocoa butter alternatives can be classified into three groups: (1) cocoa butter substitutes (CBS), fats based on palm kernel oil or coconut oil, (2) cocoa butter replacers (CBR), non-polymorphic non-lauric fats based on partially hydrogenated oils, and (3) cocoa butter equiva- lents (CBE), polymorphic non-lauric fats that are defined as fat or fat blends with a similar melting profile, composition and poly- morphism as CB, which should be compatible with CB without pre- senting any eutectic behaviour (McGinley, 1991). CBEs are usually prepared by blending a fat rich in POP, usually palm mid fraction (PMF), and StOSt-rich fats, which come from exotic species like shea, kokum or mango kernel. Shea butter is the most common StOSt source, but it contains elevated level of 1-stearoyl-2,3-dioleoyl glycerol (StOO), which considerably softens the oil. For that reason, shea butter needs to be fractionated to ob- tain a high melting point stearin suitable for CBE formulation (Brench, 2002; Bup, Kapseu, Matos, Mabiala, & Mouloungui, 2011; Lipp & Anklam, 1998). However, these tropical fats come from trees growing in the rainforest and their availability from year to year can change substantially (Talbot, 2004). In this regard, 0308-8146/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.03.040 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954611550x264; fax: +34 954616790. E-mail address: jjsalas@cica.es (J.J. Salas). Food Chemistry 134 (2012) 1409–1417 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Food Chemistry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem