IDENTIFICATION OF COCOA BUTTER EQUIVALENTS ADDED TO COCOA BUTTER - I - AN APPROACH BY FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION OF THE TRIACYLGLYCEROL SUBFRACTIONS SEPARATED BY AG-HPLC()

Separation of the six sub-fractions of triacylglycerols (TAG) from coc oa butter, three cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs: calvetta, choclin and coberine) and their mixtures was carried out by silver ion high-perfo rmance liquid chromatography. The percentage fatty acid composition of all these sub-fractions was then measured by high-resolution gas chro matographic analysis of the methyl esters of the constitutive fatty ac ids. In particular, the percentage quantities of all acids in the full y saturated sub-fraction of pure fats and some of their mixtures were evaluated as a function of the percentage CBEs added to cocoa butter i n order to devise multiple regression models. The aim was to obtain st atistical tools for the identification and/or quantification of added CBEs. The results obtained show the effectiveness of TAG sub-fraction percentage fatty acid composition data for the purposes of research, a s well as the potential use of stereospecific analysis of the same sub -fractions. In fact, the stereospecific analysis of TAG fractions from cocoa butter and CBEs already carried out has enabled observation of the different distributions of various fatty acids in the glycerol bac kbone of TAG from cocoa butter and the CBEs under study, and this will certainly result in the development of more powerful and discriminati ng statistical models.