Determination of the solid fat content of hard confectionery butters

Abstract

Abstract A method is described for the determination of the solid fat content in hard confectionery butters of the nonstabilized type, e.g., palm kernel sterine. The method is based on the technique of low‐resolution pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (pNMR) by means of which the solid fat content of a fat sample can be calculated directly from the relative intensity of signals arising from protons in both the liquid and solid phases. A measuring procedure is reported, based on the use of the Bruker Minispec p20i low‐resolution pNMR spectrometer, and attention is drawn to the stabilization pretreatment to which the fat samples need to be subjected prior to measurement in the pNMR instrument. The entire procedure is straightforward to operate and ideally suited to the measurement of large numbers of samples. The relationship between the solids content (N‐value) and dilatation (D‐value) is discussed and an interconversion table is given. The accuracy and reproducibility of the method are indicated.