Fatblend and process of producing

Claim 2

Fatblend, useful in chocolate compositions, comprising a mid-fraction of hardened, fractionated soybean oil, BO, and a mid-fraction of hardened, fractionated cottonseed oil, CS, wherein the weight ratio BO/CS of the two mid-fractions is 10:90-40:60.

Claim 3

Fatblend, according to claim 1, wherein the ratio of the mid-fractions is 25:75 to 35:65.

Claim 4

Fatblend, according to claim 1, wherein the blend also contains up to 15 wt % of the olein-fraction, obtainable by fractionation of a blend of hardened soybean oil and hardened cottonseed oil.

Claim 5

Fatblend according to claim 3, wherein the blend contains 2-8 wt % of the olein-fraction, obtainable by fractionation of a blend of hardened soybean oil and hardened cottonseed oil.

Claim 6

Fatblend, according to claim 1, wherein the hardened oil is obtained by a catalytic hardening process that leads to a product with more than 40% trans-hardened oil.

Claim 7

Fatblend, according to claim 1, wherein the mid-fraction of fractionated oil is obtained by wetfractionation of the hardened fat with acetone.

Claim 8

Fatblend, according to claim 1, comprising two separately obtained mid-fractions of hardened and fractionated soybean and cottonseed oil.

Claim 9

Fatblend according to claim 1, comprising a mid-fraction, obtained by a combined hardening and fractionation of a blend of soybean oil and cottonseed oil.

Claim 10

Chocolate coating with improved gloss-retention, which contains a fatblend according to claim 1.

Claim 11

Chocolate products, containing a coating as claimed in claim 9.

Claim 12

Process for the preparation of a fat blend comprising hardening catalytically soybean oil, cottonseed oil or a mixture thereof, wet-fractionating the hardened product or products either separately or combined, separating mid-fraction(s), and where more than one mid-fraction are obtained, mixing them, so that a fat blend with a weight ratio of soybean oil components:cotton seed oil components of less than 1.0 is recovered.

Claim 13

Process for the preparation of a fat blend comprising hardening catalytically soybean oil, cottonseed oil or a mixture thereof, wet-fractionating the hardened product or products either separately or combined, separating mid-fraction(s), and where more than one mid-fraction are obtained, mixing them, so that a fat blend with a weight ratio of soybean oil components:cotton seed oil components of less than 1.0 is recovered.

Claim 14

Process according to claim 11, wherein the catalytic hardening is carried out with a sulfidised Ni-catalyst.

Claim 15

Process according to claim 11, wherein the wet-fractionation is carried out with acetone in a ratio of more than 3 vol. units acetone per weight unit of oil.

Claim 16

Process according to claim 11, wherein the following steps are carried out in the fractionation step: mixing of the components including acetone at a temperature above 35° C., cooling the mixture to -15° to +15° C., separating the mixture and separating a solid fraction, dissolving this solid fraction at a temperature above 35° C. in acetone, cooling again to 16°-24° C., separating and working up the acetone fraction in order to collect the required mid-fraction.