Cocoa Butter Substitute (CBS)

About This Product

Cocoa butter substitute, usually abbreviated CBS, is a hard vegetable fat produced by fractionating and hydrogenating palm kernel oil to concentrate its lauric fraction. It is not chemically similar to cocoa butter; it simply behaves like it on the palate, melting sharply near body temperature to give a comparable eating experience at lower cost. The practical advantage is that CBS is not polymorphic the way cocoa butter is. It crystallises directly into a stable form, so compound coatings made with it can be cooled straight from the melt without the controlled tempering cycle that real chocolate requires. That removes a tempering machine and a process step. The trade-off is a strict incompatibility: because the lauric triglycerides in CBS and the symmetrical triglycerides in cocoa butter do not co-crystallise, blending more than about five percent cocoa butter into a CBS system produces a eutectic effect that softens the fat and causes bloom. Cocoa powder, which carries residual cocoa butter, must be selected as a low-fat grade for the same reason. CBS is used in compound chocolate and enrobing coatings, confectionery fillings and centres, biscuit and wafer coatings, ice cream shell coatings and bakery glazes, where it delivers gloss, snap and clean release from moulds. Bio Green Oils and Fats supplies cocoa butter substitute to specification on melting point, solid fat content profile, free fatty acid, iodine value and colour, matched to the coating process.