Every coating fat belongs to one of two families. Lauric or non-lauric. Choosing between them comes down to a single question.
Does your product contain any cocoa butter?
If it does, you need a non-lauric fat. If it does not, a lauric fat will usually serve you better, because it sets faster and melts more cleanly in the mouth.
That is the whole decision. This article explains what these two families actually are, why cocoa butter decides between them, and what goes wrong when the rule is broken.
What is a lauric fat?
A lauric fat is a vegetable fat made from coconut oil or palm kernel oil.
Both oils are rich in lauric acid. Lauric acid is a fatty acid built on a short chain of twelve carbon atoms, and that short chain is what gives the whole family its character. Fats built from short chains melt across a narrow band of temperature. So a lauric fat stays firm at room temperature, then melts quickly and completely once it reaches body temperature.
That behaviour is exactly what a coating needs. It sets fast on the line, it snaps when you bite it, and it does not leave a waxy film in the mouth. You will find lauric fats in compound chocolate coatings on biscuits and wafers, in ice cream bar shells, and in cake and confectionery coatings.
These are the only two oils in commercial use in India, though a few smaller oils elsewhere in the world belong to the same family. What they all share is that lauric acid is their main fatty acid.
Which brings us to the second family, defined largely by what it is not.
What is a non-lauric fat?
A non-lauric fat is any confectionery fat not built on lauric acid.
These come from palm oil, palm stearin, shea, sal, illipe and soya. Their fatty acid chains are longer, so they melt across a wider band of temperature. The result is a softer, slower melt in the mouth rather than a sharp one.
The most important members of this family are cocoa butter equivalents. These are non-lauric fats formulated to behave the way cocoa butter behaves, close enough that a formulator can mix them with cocoa butter in any proportion. That single property is why they exist.
So non-lauric fats go into anything carrying real chocolate, products made with cocoa mass or cocoa butter, coatings that need genuine chocolate flavour, and products that will sit against a chocolate centre for months.
How the two families compare
| Lauric fats | Non-lauric fats | |
|---|---|---|
| Made from | Coconut oil, palm kernel oil | Palm, palm stearin, shea, sal, illipe, soya |
| Fatty acid chain | Short, twelve carbon atoms | Longer |
| Melt in the mouth | Sharp and clean | Broader and softer |
| Setting speed | Fast | Slower |
| Tempering needed | No | Yes, for cocoa butter equivalents |
| Cocoa butter it can hold | About 5% of the fat, no more | Any amount, for equivalents |
| Shine on the finished product | Very good | Depends on tempering |
| What spoils it | Moisture, which turns the taste soapy | Oxidation, which turns the taste rancid |
| Typical use | Compound coatings, biscuit and wafer coatings, ice cream bar shells | Anything containing cocoa mass or cocoa butter |
Why lauric fats and cocoa butter cannot be mixed
Put the two together and the mixture melts at a lower temperature than either fat does on its own. The coating goes soft when it should stay firm, and a grey film forms on the surface in storage.
That grey film is fat bloom. It is not mould and it is not dirt. It is fat that has separated out and recrystallised on the surface, and once it appears the product looks unsellable even though nothing about it is unsafe.
The limit is specific, and it is worth knowing by heart. A lauric fat can carry up to about 5% cocoa butter. Above that, the coating softens and blooms.
Note that the 5% is measured against the fat in the product, not against the whole product. This catches people out. A coating that contains no cocoa butter of its own can still cross the line, because cocoa butter travels. If your coating sits against a chocolate filling or a chocolate centre, some of that cocoa butter will move into the coating over a few weeks in a warehouse.
This is also why the defect is so often discovered late. The line runs cleanly, the product looks correct at dispatch, and the complaint arrives a month later from a distributor.
When a lauric fat is the right choice
Use a lauric fat when your product contains no cocoa butter and you want speed on the line.
The biggest advantage is that lauric fats skip tempering entirely. Tempering is the controlled heating and cooling that real chocolate has to go through, so that the cocoa butter sets in the right crystal form. Get the sequence wrong and the chocolate comes out dull, soft and streaky. It is a slow step, it needs its own equipment, and it varies from shift to shift.
Lauric fats set correctly straight from the melted state, with no tempering at all. Removing that step removes a machine, a control loop and a common source of variation.
The finish is the second reason. Where there is no cocoa butter to interfere, a lauric coating sets in very small crystals, and small crystals give a high shine that holds for months on the shelf.
Typical applications are coating lines where product runs under a curtain of melted fat, ice cream bar shells, wafer coatings and cake coatings.
When you need a non-lauric fat instead
You need a non-lauric fat whenever cocoa butter is present, or will find its way in later.
Three situations decide it:
- Your recipe contains cocoa mass, cocoa butter or chocolate liquor
- Your coating will sit against a chocolate filling or centre for weeks or months
- You are selling into a market where the product standard requires cocoa butter in the fat
There is a cost to this choice. Cocoa butter equivalents behave like cocoa butter, which means they need tempering, and tempering is the very step a lauric coating lets you avoid. You are trading line speed for the ability to carry real chocolate. Whether that trade is worth making depends on what you are selling and to whom.
How to store and handle lauric fats
Lauric fats keep well against the slow rancidity that spoils most oils. What they do not tolerate is water.
The reason sits in the same short chains that make them melt so cleanly. Those chains resist oxidation, which is why lauric fats do not turn rancid easily. But they break down readily in the presence of moisture, and when they do, they release free fatty acids that taste distinctly of soap.
Three rules follow from that, and they are worth writing into your standard operating procedure:
- Keep water out of melt tanks. A leaking jacket or a wet scoop is a defect waiting to happen.
- Keep lipase away from the fat. Lipase is an enzyme that breaks fat down, and it is present in some dairy powders and enzyme-treated ingredients. Do not run those through the same equipment as a lauric coating without cleaning in between.
- Watch the free fatty acid figure on every certificate of analysis. A number that climbs batch over batch is an early warning, not a routine entry to file away.
Which 3F fat fits your product
3F Industries Limited has made coating, filling and frozen dessert fats since 1960. The range divides along the same line this article describes.
Lauric fats, made only from coconut or palm kernel oil
Use these where there is no cocoa butter in the product.
- Riola Refined Coconut Oil. Refined coconut oil, for ice creams, chocolate and confectionery.
- Palm Pyari. Refined palm kernel oil.
- Glaize. Hydrogenated refined palm kernel oil, for shine, volume and stability.
- Glaize Creme. Hydrogenated refined palm kernel oil, for rich taste and shine.
Blends that contain a lauric fat
These carry palm oil alongside coconut or palm kernel oil, so the cocoa butter limit still applies to them.
- Riola 379. Fractionated and interesterified coconut oil with palm fractions, for chocolate and confectionery.
- Frozen Delite. Interesterified palm, palm kernel and coconut oils, for frozen desserts.
- Magik Meltz. Interesterified palm, palm kernel and coconut oils, for frozen desserts.
- Supra Classic, Supra Creme and Supra Magic. Refined palm oil with refined palm kernel oil and fats, for confectionery.
Non-lauric fats, built on palm
These are the ones that can sit alongside cocoa butter.
- Creme Delite. Refined palm oil, for frozen desserts.
- Supra Lite. Refined palm oil and palm stearin, for confectionery.
- Supra Vanaspati. Refined palm oil and palm stearin.
- Rasoya. Refined palmolein, for mawa and sweets.
- Ezyfry. Refined palm super olein, a frying oil rather than a coating fat.
If you are not sure which of these suits your line, send us the product and we will tell you, along with the specification sheet.
Frequently asked questions
Can I blend a lauric fat with a non-lauric fat?
You can mix them, but the result usually performs worse than either fat on its own. The blend melts at a lower temperature than both, so the coating turns soft at room temperature and comes out of the mould slowly.
Why has my compound coating turned grey?
If it is a lauric coating, the usual cause is cocoa butter getting into the fat, either from a cocoa ingredient in the recipe or by travelling in from a filling during storage. Past about 5% of the fat, the coating softens and a grey film appears on the surface.
Do lauric coating fats need tempering?
No. They set correctly straight from the melted state, which is why they suit fast coating lines.
Is a cocoa butter equivalent the same thing as a non-lauric fat?
Every cocoa butter equivalent is non-lauric, but not every non-lauric fat is an equivalent. An equivalent is made to match cocoa butter closely enough to mix with it freely, which is a much stricter requirement than simply containing no lauric acid.
Tell us what you are making and we will recommend the grade
Send us the product, what is in the fat, your line speed and the shelf life you are working to. Our applications team will come back with the grade that fits and the specification sheet to go with it.