Reducing butter firmness with chemically esterified butter oil

Abstract

In a consumer-centric environment, food products are created and focused on the consumer's experience and desires. One important food product used around the world is butter. Consumers expect that when they take their butter out of the refrigerator, it will be able to spread nicely and evenly; however, with conventional butter, which does not include any added vegetable oils, achieving a soft, spreadable butter is rare. This work seeks to contribute to the pool of knowledge regarding the role of catalysts in effecting butter spreadability. To meet consumer expectations, utilizing catalysts in the esterification process with butter oil has proven successful in changing the lipid structure, enabling the possibility of a softer butter. The comparison of utilizing no catalysts and 2 different catalysts, potassium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide, during the chemical esterification process showed that the use of potassium hydroxide catalyst resulted in the least firm and lowest solid fat content butter. These findings demonstrate the potential for industrial use of esterified butter oil using potassium hydroxide in commercial butter.