CoCal-2 - A Simple Toolbox to Prove Authenticity of Mik Chocolate

CoCal-2 offers an important measure to assess compliance with labelling provisions of milk chocolate as laid down in Directive 2000/36/EC. By performing a single triacylglycerol analysis using gas liquid chromatography several useful pieces of information can be determined, i.e. (i) the milk fat content of the chocolate sample, (ii) the contribution of triacylglycerols originating from milk fat, (iii) the presence/absence of CBEs, and (iv) the amount of vegetable fat present in milk chocolate.JRC.D.8-Food safety and qualit

Gas Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Milk Fat and Cocoa Butter Equivalents in Milk Chocolate: Interlaboratory Study

A collaborative trial with 12 laboratories was conducted to validate an analytical approach comprising method procedures for the determination of milk fat and the detection and the quantification of CBEs in milk chocolate. CBE admixtures were detected down to a level of 0.5 g CBE/100 g milk chocolate. The applied quantification model performed well at the statutory limit of 5% CBE addition to milk chocolate with HorRAT values ranging from 0.8 to 1.5. The RSDr for quantification of CBEs in analyses of chocolate fat solutions ranged from 2.2 to 3.8% and in analyses of real chocolate samples, from 4.1 to 4.7%.JRC.D.8-Food safety and qualit

Foreign Fats in Milk Chocolate

According to Chocolate Directive 200/36/EC (!) a number of specified vegetable fats (so called cocoa butter equivalents, CBEs) other than cocoa butter (CB) may be added to chocolate products to a maximum of 5% provided that they are labelled. Due to the similar composition of CB and CBEs it is extremely difficult to quantify and even in some cases to detect them. For implementation of Directive 200/36/EC, an integrated approach for determining CBEs in plain chocolate using triglyceride (TG) profiling by high-resolution gas liquid chromatography (HR-GLC) has been developed and validated in an inter-laboratory study. So far, this standardised analytical approach established for plain chocolate is not applicable to m ilk chocolate since the presence of milk fat affects the TG composition. Currently, a method is being developed, which shall allow a reliable quantification and correction for the amount of milk fat in chocolate, thus enabling to extend the existing standardised approach for analysis of CBEs in plain chocolate to milk chocolate.JRC.D.8-Food safety and qualit

Quantification of Milk Fat i Chocolate Fats by Triacylglycerol Analysis using Gas-Liquid Chromatography

The development and in-house testing of a method for the quantification of milk fat I chocolate fats is described. A database consisting of the triacylglycerol profile of 310 genuine milk fat samples from 21 European countries and 947 mixtures thereof with chocolate fats was created under a strict quality control scheme using 26 triacylglycerol reference standards for calibration purposes. Out of the individual triacylglycerol fractions obtained, a-palmitoyl-2-stearoyl-3-butyroul-glycerol (PSB) was selected as suitable marker compound for the determination of the proportion of milk fat I chocolate fats. A comparison with the widely used butyric acid method, which is currently used to determine the milk fat content in non –milk fat mixtures, showed that both methods were equivalent in terms of accuracy. The Advantage of the presented approach is that for further applications, i.e., determination of foreign fats in chocolate fats, just a single analysis is necessary, whereas for the same purpose the C4 method requires two different analytical methods.JRC.D.8-Food safety and qualit

Determination of Cocoa Butter Equivalents in Milk Chocolate by Triacylglycerol Profiling

An analytical approach for the detection and quantification of cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) in milk chocolate is presented. It is based on (i) a comprehensive standardized database covering the triacylglycerol composition of a wide range of authentic milk fat, cocoa butter as well as CBE samples and 947 gravimetrically prepared mixtures thereof, (ii) the availability of a certified cocoa butter reference material for calibration, (iii) an evaluation algorithm, which allows a reliable quantification of the milk fat content in chocolate fats using a simple linear regression model, (iv) a subsequent correction of triacylglycerols deriving from milk fat, (v) mathematical expressions to detect the presence of CBEs in milk chocolate, and (vi) a multivariate statistical formula to quantify the amount of CBEs in milk chocolate. The detection limit was 1% CBE in chocolate fat (0.3 % in chocolate; fat content of 30%). For quantification the average error for prediction was 1.2 % CBE in chocolate fat, corresponding to 0.4 % in milk chocolate (fat content 30 %).JRC.D.8-Food safety and qualit