Fatty acid composition was determined in national and imported milk chocolate bars acquired in local market, in order to assess their quality and detect possible adulteration. The Brazilian legislation forbids the use of cocoa butter replacement in chocolates, but some countries allow replacements up to 5% and these products may enter the Brazilian market. Three national and four imported brands of chocolate bars were analyzed by high resolution gas chromatography. The results pointed to characteristic cocoa butter fatty acids as well a non-characteristic in all analyzed samples. These non-characteristic fatty acids could be derived from the milk fat or from some cocoa butter replacements. Therefore, for milk chocolate is not possible to characterize the addition of cocoa butter replacements only though the evaluation of fatty acid composition. It is necessary use other analysis method, as the triacylglycerol determination.
chocolate; cocoa butter replacements; fatty acids; gas chromatography
