Preparation of mango kernel fat stearin-based hard chocolate fats via physical blending and enzymatic interesterification

Mango kernel fat-third stearin (MKF-TS) is one of the most valuable cocoa butter improvers. Hard chocolate fats were prepared using MKF-TS, hard palm-mid fraction (HPMF) and cocoa butter (CB) via physical blending and enzymatic interesterification. The optimal physical blend (PB) produced from 10% HPMF, 55% MKF-TS and 35% CB contained 60.9 g/100 g 1,3-distearoyl-2-oleoyl-glycerol, 21.1 g/100 g 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-3-stearoylglycerol and 9.5 g/100 g 1,3-dipalmitoyl-2-oleoylglycerol. The optimal interesterified blend (IB) enzymatically synthesized from 20% HPMF, 60% MKF-TS and 20% CB shared similar triacylglycerol composition to PB. Both PB and IB showed improved thermostabilities compared to CB in terms of sold fat contents, melting and crystallization behaviors. They also exhibited β polymorphic forms and 50-120 μm featherlike crystals, which were close to those of CB. The melting of IB tended to be sharper than non-interesterified blend (Non-IB) and its crystals were more continuous and uniform, indicating that enzymatic interesterification is a potential technique for manufacturing hard chocolate fats.