Dynamic crystallization of cocoa butter. I. characterization of simple lipids in rapid‐ and slow‐nucleating cocoa butters and their seed crystals

Abstract

Abstract Six cocoa butters with different crystallization induction times and their seed crystals were analyzed for simple lipid composition. The rapid‐nucleating cocoa butter samples had higher concentrations of 1‐palmitoyl‐2‐oleoyl‐3‐stearoylglycerol and 1,3‐stearoyl‐2‐oleoylglycerol (SOS), and lower concentrations of the diunsaturated triacylglycerols, 1‐palmitoyl‐2,3‐oleoylglycerol and 1‐stearoyl‐2,3‐oleoylglycerol, as well as higher stearic acid concentrations within their diacylglycerol fractions when compared to the slow‐nucleating samples. At the early stages of crystallization, under agitation conditions at 26.5°C, cocoa butters solidified into two fractions, high‐melting and low‐melting. The low‐melting fractions were composed of polymorphs IV and V of cocoa butter, as indicated by the onset melting temperatures of the endotherms from differential scanning calorimetry. The high‐melting fractions, which had wide melting ranges, had peak maxima of 38.5–52.2°C. Seed crystals isolated at the early stage of crystallization were characterized by high concentrations of complex lipids, saturated triacylglycerols, saturated fatty acid‐rich diacylglycerols, and monoacylglycerols. The rapid‐nucleating seed crystals had higher concentrations of SOS when compared to their respective cocoa butters. The slow‐nucleating seed crystals did not exhibit this characteristic.