Enzymatic interesterification of palm fractions for the production of cocoa butter alternatives

Abstract

Cocoa butter is the most preferable confectionery fat. In spite of this, cocoa butter alternatives (CBA) are also highly sought-after confectionery fats due to low supply and higher cost of cocoa butter. In the pursuit to produce palm-based CBA, various technological modification techniques have been employed. These include fractionation, blending, hydrogenation, interesterification (chemical and interesterification) or combination of these processes. Enzymatic interesterification (EIE) of lipids has received a lot of attention for the production of palm-based CBA especially cocoa butter equivalent. This review article, therefore, intends to offer an overview of EIE studies for the production of palm-based CBA. In this review, technological modification techniques are discussed in brief while publication related to EIE are discussed in depth based on its reactions categories (i.e. acidolysis, ester-ester exchange and alcoholysis). Reaction condition (i.e. subtrate, enzyme and optimum condition) and outcome of the EIE process are outlaid in this article.