Milkfat fractions offer several advantages to food processors. These fractions could soften refrigerated butter and make it more spreadable, improve the taste of cakes and butter cookies, and cause pastries and other bakery products to rise more evenly and consistently. We've also found that some milkfat fractions can lengthen shelf-life by inhibiting fat bloom, which is a greyish cast that develops on the surface of chocolate. In addition, these fractions can standardize the consistency and melting characteristics of chocolate when manufacturers must use cocoa butter of varying quality from different countries. Some dairy plants produce surplus milkfat.
Fractionation turns milkfat from a commodity with limited uses into a versatile food ingredient.
Much of Dimick's research focuses on different aspects of chocolate, from manufacturing processes and ingredients to flavor. This is especially important because manufacturers are somewhat at the mercy of suppliers in other countries for their cocoa beans. If there's political or economic instability, a cocoa disease outbreak, or adverse growing conditions in the major producing countries in western Africa or South America, manufacturers here may have to use lower-quality beans and supplement the flavor. But to do that and maintain consistency, they have to understand how that flavor is produced and how it could be modified through reactions during roasting. Maintaining chocolate consistency also is at the center of Dimick's work on cocoa butter crystallization, or the mechanism by which it solidifies.