Deacidification of crude low-calorie cocoa butter with liquid-liquid extraction and strong-base anion exchange resin

A feasible and novel deacidification process for the production of refined low-calorie cocoa butter by liquid-liquid extraction and anion exchange resin was investigated. The results showed that ethanol was a better solvent for extraction than methanol and isopropanol. The commercially available anion exchange resin D202 used in the experiments had a maximum adsorption capacity of 223.71 mg/g. With a two-stage extraction using 85 vol.% aqueous ethanol and an interaction time with resin of 4 h under the optimum conditions, low-calorie cocoa butter with an acid value of 0.81 mg KOH/g was obtained. Stable and qualified final products were acquired from 10 batches, indicating that the integrated process had no significant tendency to change the characteristics of low-calorie cocoa butter. The D202 anion exchange resin was regenerated and reused in 38 consecutive batches. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.