ABSTRACT
Cocoa butter (CB) is a vegetable fat [1] and most abundantly employed as a confectionery fat [2,3]. The vegetable oil involving high amounts of solid fat fractions, such as illipe butter, shea nut oil, sal fat, palm oil, and kokum fats, are added to modify the physical property of CB-based confections or employed as main bodies of chocolate fats to replace CB [2]. Hydrogenated vegetable oils, such as soybean and cottonseed oils, are also employed for confectionery coating fats. Processing of the confectionery fats involves three major physical controls: crystallization of fat crystals, morphology and network of the fat crystal particles, and rheological variations of the chocolate mass. CB reveals the optimal proper ties necessary for producing confections among the all-vegetable fats displayed above, and thereby CB has attracted the greatest attention in confectionery sci ence and technology research.
