Understanding of the crystallization behaviour and kinetics of cocoa butter and cocoa butter equivalents for rational design of more susta

Chocolate is a popular confectionary and its demand is increasing globally. Since cocoa trees only grow in some tropical areas, this increased demand have pushed farmers to convert regions of intact forests into cocoa plantations. Between 2001 and 2014 Ghana lost 175,000 hectares of forest due to cocoa expansion. Such amount of deforestation can have a serious impact on biodiversity and climate change. For this reason, food manufacturers have started to develop strategies to replace or reduce the amount of cocoa used in chocolate. One of them is the use of cocoa butter equivalents, mixtures of triglycerides from multiple sources (e.g., sunflower oil, mango kernel, sal) that resemble cocoa butter in physical and chemical properties. In this project we will investigate the crystallization behaviour of selected CBEs from different origins, and compare it with that of cocoa butter. This study can enable the design of more sustainable chocolate recipes and manufacturing processes.