Cocoa butter substitute: properties, types, benefits and harm

In the confectionery industry, one of the main semi-finished products is chocolate glaze. Traditionally, cocoa butter was used in the production of this component. This component is not cheap, and the characteristics are very fastidious. In recent years, a non-lauric and laurin cocoa butter substitute has been used. In the media, we are increasingly observing the controversy as to whether the product is useful or harmful. Proponents and opponents of substitutes argue. Let us examine this issue in more detail.

Confectionery glaze

Without the production of glaze, there is not a single confectionery factory. It is used in almost all products - in various pastries, in the production of ice cream, glazed curds, sweets, cakes and many other kinds of sweets. Such a popular glaze make some characteristics:

• Flavoring. The product due to the processing of the glaze becomes much tastier, sweeter.
• Nutritious. Sweets receive additional nutritional value.
• Processing of confectionery glaze increases the shelf life of the product. Prevents sweets, rolls, biscuits from drying out.

Classic glaze is obtained by mixing several ingredients, this includes: cocoa butter or cocoa butter substitute, sugar, emulsifiers, dry dairy products, flavorings. Manufacturers offer bakers and confectioners a wide range of this semi-finished product: icing in pure form, with various additives, impregnations, with nuts, with raisins, a standard glaze of dark brown or various shades and colors.

Types of Fats

The use of pure cocoa butter in the production of chocolate glaze is too expensive. Such a cheap kind of raw material is used only by large confectionery factories. Most medium and small enterprises replace cocoa butter in the confectioner with identical - more affordable and cheaper - ingredients: substitutes, improvers. This allows us to remain competitive in the production of products, to keep prices, to make them more accessible for consumers. To produce glaze fats in the Russian market abound. The whole assortment is divided into the main groups:

• Confectionery fats.
• Tempered cocoa butter substitutes.
• Cocoa butter replacers are non-tempered - lauric and non-lauric.

The quality of fat, which is used in the production of glazes, affects the nutritional value and flavors of the final product.

Tempered substitutes

The modern food industry uses praline, waffle fillings, chocolate-nut pastes, fillings for sweets, various plastic and cream masses of fat in mass production. Cocoa butter substitutes are used increasingly to produce glaze.

Manufactured temperate substitutes, using palm oil, oil of grease, shea butter, as well as other exotic species that Rospotrebnadzor allowed for use in our food industry. Raw materials are used for the production of high-quality chocolate glazes, for baking, waffle cakes, sweets (for casting or for glazing). From chocolate glaze cast different figures, make chocolate tiles. Tempered substitutes have physicochemical characteristics, which are closest to the properties of cocoa butter itself. Their similarities are maximal.

Benefits

Tempered cocoa butter substitute has a number of positive qualities that can be attributed to the advantages of this product:

1. It has excellent taste characteristics. Complete absence of taste of wax in the mouth.

2. A small content of polyunsaturated acids, which provides high resistance to oxidation. Thanks to this, the products have a long shelf life.

3. Products treated with glazing have good hardness and gloss. By organoleptic indicators, such products are very similar to those that are covered with natural glaze, which is based on natural cocoa butter.

4. In hot weather conditions, the glaze based on tempered substitutes has good resistance to high temperature. This gives the advantage of the products before the one that is covered with the cocoa butter glaze.

Non-tempered equivalents of cocoa butter

Non-lauric cocoa butter substitute is made on the basis of rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil and palm oil. In composition, such equivalents are similar to cocoa butter, they can be mixed. It is acceptable to use different combinations with other vegetable oil, cocoa powder or milk powder. Non-lauric substitutes are used for glazing wafers, cakes, rolls, marmalade, cookies, marshmallows, for casting tiles, figurines. The advantage of the glaze is that it quickly solidifies, does not require tempering.

The non-temperable lauric-type cocoa butter replacer has the following characteristics:

• Does not require tempering.
• The mass fraction of fat is not less than 99%.
• It is made from modified vegetable oil.
• The content of the mass fraction of lauric acids is 40% with or without various food additives and other ingredients

It is used for glazing cheese, ice cream, cakes, rolls and other confectionery products, chocolate bars. The use of cocoa butter substitutes makes it possible to reduce the cost of production.

Lauric Fat

Lauric cocoa butter substitute is used to completely replace the natural product when making a mixture with a fat content of up to 12%. The raw material for this species are palm kernel, coconut and other oils having certain characteristics. Lauric fat can not be combined with natural cocoa butter. Combination is possible only with powder.

Lauric cocoa butter substitutes are used in the production of confectionery tiles, hollow chocolate figurines, the manufacture of super strength glaze for ice cream, cakes, marmalade, marshmallow and cottage cheese curds.

Benefits

Lauric cocoa butter substitutes have a number of advantages, they are ideal for making a hard glaze that has a luxurious gloss. Glazed articles have a hard, but very fragile surface, which, after being in the mouth, instantly melts and leaves a pleasant taste. Products are easily separated from the shape, look very aesthetically pleasing, their surface is smooth, shiny. The glaze is very easy to melt, and then hardens quickly. Glazed products have increased shelf life and resistance to graying (due to resistance to oxidation). The stage of tempering is excluded. Lauric glaze is very economical in financial terms.

disadvantages

The shortcomings of the product include the possibility of a soapy taste. This can be avoided by observing the following conditions:

• Control of microbiological parameters of raw materials, as well as humidity;
• It is necessary to introduce antioxidants into the semi-finished products;
• Do not glance confectionery, candy corps, having high humidity;
• Maintain a certain humidity in the confectionery shop.

When using different types of glaze (lauric and non-lauric fats), the equipment must be thoroughly cleaned. Mixing of the components can lead to the dilution of the semi-finished product, in the future it stiffens poorly.

Cocoa butter substitute: harm

After the general use of cocoa butter substitutes, many researchers and consumers began to leave the most controversial reviews about the product. The content of palm, coconut oil in virtually all confectionery products causes the consumer's alertness. Are they safe for the body, as the manufacturers say?

Those who carefully follows the diet, over the state of their health, long ago abandoned the products containing palm oil, and explain it by the harmful effect of this on the body. Cocoa butter in its composition has stearic, oleic, palmitic, archaic acid. High caloric content of foods leads to obesity. In the body begins the deposition of salts, then the diseases of the genitourinary system manifest themselves.

Palm oil is used to produce a lauric cocoa butter substitute. The harm is due to the presence of saturated fat in the composition. Their frequent use causes heart and vascular diseases, atherosclerosis, thrombosis, obesity. Palm oil is not excreted completely, it accumulates in the body in the form of slags. A plastic sticky mass clogs the areas of the intestine, the lumen of the vessels, is deposited on other organs. Palm oil does not absorb certain vital microelements, for example calcium. Great harm is caused to the child's health. Smart parents choose a mixture for feeding, where there is no palm oil in the composition. It is also an enhancer of taste, and it is highly not recommended for the body. Palm oil - and this is proved by scientists - is the strongest carcinogen. Refractory substances retain the product for a long time, but do not have the ability to melt in our body. Take care of your health and always read the product label on the label.