Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 30 (4) December 2018, p. 537-547

ENZYMATIC INTERESTERIFICATION OF PALM FRACTIONS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF COCOA BUTTER ALTERNATIVES – Review Article

NORAZURA AILA MOHD HASSIM*; NUR HAQIM ISMAIL* and NOOR LIDA HABI MAT DIAN*

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2018.0038
Published Online: 5 October 2018
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.

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* Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail: azuraaila@mpob.gov.my