1 Palm Oil Developments 70 (June 2019) p. 1-3 INTRODUCTION Panned products are among popular treats nowadays due to their size, shape, quantity and value. It is a rapid and powerful method to coat numerous items with chocolate. Among popular item to coat are nuts such as almonds, cashews and peanuts as well as fruits such as raisins and cherries. Since panning may have been used for 1000 years, it is considered as one of the oldest types of processed confection (Copping, 1996). It evolved from pills or dragees in which it is rolled in sugar to conceal the displeasing medicine taste. The word dragee is believed to have initiated from a confectioner named Julius Dragatus who established a coated confection around 177 BC (Kitt, 2004). Production of Palm-based Panned ‘Chocolate’ Norazura Aila Mohd Hassim* and Sivaruby Kanagaratnam* Pan-coated candies are produced by applying successive layers of coating to suitably shaped centres as they tumble in a revolving pan. In this article, the term ‘chocolate’ will be used to refer to any fat-based coating material for simplicity. Heat transfer is one of the major principles in the process of chocolate panning. Efficiency of chocolate panning process is largely determined by rapid heat transfer of the product. Other than this, other factors including humidity also play an important role. In addition, the drying of each layer of chocolate coating is crucial as the rapid drying of a layer of chocolate coating allows for the rapid application of the next coating. Chocolate smoothness and distribution are * Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), 6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia. E-mail: azuraaila@mpob.gov.my influenced by the friction from the tumbling activity (Pullia, 2004). PROCESS OF PANNED CHOCOLATE PRODUCTION i. Centres Various centres are available for chocolate panning ranging from a few millimeters to few centimeters length. Typical centres are fruits (raisins, cranberries, etc.) and nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews, etc.). It is always preferred to have centres of approximately similar size to achieve similar size and homogeneous coating of each panned item as well as to avoid clustering. Centres that are small in size such as raisins are a bit difficult to coat at its initial stage due to tumbling challenges. Firmer centres are easier to handle as chocolate shell cracking due to flexing is near to none. Denser centres are easier to manage as tumbling movement is more uniform compared to lighter centres. Rounder centres foster homogeneous chocolate coating. Centres with smooth surface area are perfect for panned chocolate. However, surface area is dictated by nature. Centres with rough surface such as raisins can only be regarded as high-quality items only if there is complete coverage of chocolate between the rough surfaces. Liquid migration (e.g. water, oil and fat etc.) can jeopardise the shelf life of panned chocolate as there will be issue on adherence of chocolate to the surface of centres, which the problem can be reduced by pre- coating. However, most centres would not be able to comply with all of these specifications (Geschwindner and Drouven, 2009). ii. ‘Chocolates’ Dark, milk and white chocolate and compound coatings are suitable for panned products. Dark chocolate is normally used for sweet centre (e.g. raisin) (Malaysian Cocoa Board, 2017). Compound coatings from palm fractions namely cocoa butter equivalent (CBE), cocoa butter replacer (CBR) and cocoa butter substitutes (CBS) are suitable for panned chocolate. Fat content of between 28%- 35% is preferable for panned chocolate and compound coatings (Geschwindner and Drouven, 2009). Compound coatings has broader range of melting points