Food processing: Prime pressed cocoa butter

Prime pressed cocoa bitter is designed as the fat obtained from good quality cocoa nib commercially free form shell by means of mechanical (hydraulic) pressing. No subsequent refining other than filtration is employed.

Cocoa butter, which forms about 45%b of the bean is extracted by removing the beans from their pods and allowing them to ferment before they are dried, roasted, shelled and ground to the paste known as ‘cocoa liquor’ or ‘cocoa mass’.

The cocoa liquor is then by hydraulic, screw expelling or solvent extraction to produce cocoa butter. There is usually some oil remaining on the cocoa powder - it is impossible to take out all the fat simply by pressing.

Pressing liquor made from highest quality nibs gives the best quality cocoa butter which is designated ‘pure prime pressed’, but butter produced by expeller pressing of good quality nibs is almost equivalent. Solvent extraction is used only from extraction of cake residues from the expeller process or of other, waste, residues.

Prime pressed cocoa butter is usually used directly in chocolate without any further processing. This makes it unusual among fats in the most fats are refined before use to remove unwanted minor components such as free fatty acids, pigments, oxidation products and off-flavors.
Food processing: Prime pressed cocoa butter

Expeller pressed process of cocoa butter

Expeller cocoa bitter is the fat prepared by the expeller process from cocoa beans singly or in combination with cocoa nib, cocoa mass, cocoa presscake and low fat cocoa presscake. In the expeller, extrusion, or screw press, slightly different conditions prevail during extraction.

Expeller cocoa butter usually has a stronger flavor and darker color than prime cocoa butter and is filtered with carbon or otherwise treated prior to use. The nib is normally steamed to assist the separation – chemically, the cocoa butter is the same as prime pressed. Expellers are also used to extract the fat from whole beans.

Often, expeller pressing is often applied to poorer grade nibs and may be assisted by steam treatment. It also used in some winnowing products, in which case the resultant cocoa butter is usually subjected to a refining process.

Expeller presses operate by using a rotating screw to force the material being extracted into tapering tube. The tube has slits along its length and terminates in a cone-shaped device which can be adjusted to vary the size of the outlet.

As material passes along the tube it is subject both to continuously increasing pressure and to the shearing action of the screw. Cocoa butter is expressed through the slots in the sides of the tubes, while flakes of press cake emerge from the outlet at the end of the tube.
Expeller pressed process of cocoa butter