Abstract
An effective evaluation model was established to digitize the quality of cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) based on determinations of total and sn-2 fatty acid compositions and triacylglycerol (TAG) profiles and the "deducting score" principle. Similarity scores for selected fats and oils calculated from the model revealed differences between them and parallel cocoa butter compositions. For CBE1 and CBE2, total similarity scores were 90.6 and 90.0, whereas those of mango (76.3), dhupa (84.1), sal fat (84.7), kokum (78.3), palm mid fractions (PMF, 77.9), shea butter (64.0), illipe butter (89.7) and Pentadesma butyracea butter (67.2), respectively. Similarity scores were found to agree with physical properties, including polymorphism, crystal morphology, crystallization or melting behaviors, and solid fat content. The present study provides an accurate means of assessing CBE quality and hopefully will contribute to the development of commercial CBEs.