It is intended to provide a dry fractionation method for fat whereby the
performance for fractionating a fat into a high-melting fraction, a
medium-melting fraction and a low-melting fraction can be improved to
thereby preventing, in particular, the medium-melting fraction from
worsening of the melting properties in the mouth and a decrease in the
melting point with the passage of time and, in its turn, improving the
melting properties in the mouth of a chocolate product which is produced
by using the thus obtained hard butter for chocolates, etc. A method of
fractionating a fat wherein a fraction (in particular, a medium-melting
fraction) obtained by dry fractionation is efficiently separated from a
high-melting fraction and a low-melting fraction mixed therewith. More
specifically, a dry fractionation method which comprises heating a
crystal fraction containing a large amount of
1,3-disaturated-2-unsaturated triglycerides to thereby melt the
1,3-disaturated-2-unsturated triglyceride components followed by
solid/liquid separation of tri-saturated triglycerides as a crystal
fraction, thereby achieving a favorable performance of fractionating
1,3-disaturated-2-unsaturated triglycerides and saturated triglycerides.