The effect of flow rate at different pressures and temperatures on cocoa butter extracted from cocoa nib using supercritical carbon dioxide

E K Asep; S Jinap; A R Russly; M H A Jahurul; Kashif Ghafoor; I S M Zaidul

doi:10.1007/s13197-016-2191-2

The effect of flow rate at different pressures and temperatures on cocoa butter extracted from cocoa nib using supercritical carbon dioxide

J Food Sci Technol. 2016 May;53(5):2287-97. doi: 10.1007/s13197-016-2191-2. Epub 2016 May 24.

Authors

E K Asep¹, S Jinap¹, A R Russly², M H A Jahurul³, Kashif Ghafoor⁴, I S M Zaidul⁵

Affiliations

¹ Food Safety Research Centre (FOSREC), Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Malaysia ; Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Malaysia.
² Food Safety Research Centre (FOSREC), Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor Malaysia.
³ Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 884000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Food Science and Nutrition, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451 Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan Campus, 25200 Kuantan, Pahang Malaysia.

Abstract

The effects of flow rate, different pressures and temperatures on cocoa butter extracted from cocoa nib using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) were investigated. The yield was analyzed for total fat content, triacylglycerol (TG) profile, and fatty acid (FA) profile. Extractions were carried out at pressures of 20 and 35 MPa, temperatures of 50 and 60 °C, and CO2 flow rates of 0.5, 1, 2, 4 mL min(-1). The result shows that the yield of cocoa butter extract increased with increasing pressure, temperature, and flow rate and the optimum conditions for the maximum cocoa butter extraction were 35 MPa, 60 °C and 2 mL min(-1), repectively. TGs and FAs were found to be similar in composition to those of cocoa butter obtained by conventional methods. The lower molecular weight TGs and FAs showed higher selectivity compared to higher molecular weight TGs and FAs.

Keywords: Cocoa butter; Flow rate; Pressure; Selectivity; Temperature; scCO2 extraction.