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अमूर्त

Palm Oil Based Confectionery Fats: A Comparison with Cocoa Butter and Other Hard Butters

MT Asghar*, AM Johari, HRM Saiah, JMS Choy, NE Khoon, C Gomes, S Fatima, S Shakoor, LS Chang, M Shafiq

Palm oil has several exceptional nutritional qualities and physical properties. It contains no trans-fats, which makes its cholesterol content 1/3 of that in cocoa butter. It is rich in nutrients and antioxidants, such as beta-carotene, carotenoids, glycerolipids, phospholipids, phytosterols, squalene, tocopherol, tocotrienols, triacylglycerols, ubiquinones, vitamins A, D and E, and it keeps the confections free from adhering to teeth and dentures. The escalating price and increasing scarcity of cocoa butter in the market and the substantial drop in the supply of the other lauric acid based fat, the coconut oil, make palm oil the prime substitute to cocoa butter in the confectionary industry. However, more target-based technical research in this regard should be done for palm oil to be competitive with similar products that are already dominating the market. The uniformity of composition of the genuine cocoa butter and the non-uniformity of the same in all other hard butters is a challenge to be addressed in the future for palm oil-based confectionery fats. Apart from technical research, the palm oil producers should also work on societal and marketing aspects of promoting palm oil based hard butter at the international level to be a market leader in the field.