Portable NIR spectrometer for quick identification of fat bloom in chocolates

Rafaela F Gatti; Felipe B de Santana; Ronei J Poppi; Daniela S Ferreira

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128267

Portable NIR spectrometer for quick identification of fat bloom in chocolates

Food Chem. 2021 Apr 16:342:128267. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128267. Epub 2020 Oct 8.

Authors

Rafaela F Gatti¹, Felipe B de Santana², Ronei J Poppi², Daniela S Ferreira³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Technology - School of Food Engineering, University of Campinas, Monteiro Lobato Street, 80, CEP 13083-862 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
² Department of Analytical Chemistry - Institute of Chemistry, Josué de Castro Street, CEP 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
³ Department of Food Technology - School of Food Engineering, University of Campinas, Monteiro Lobato Street, 80, CEP 13083-862 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address: eng.dsf@gmail.com.

PMID: 33067047
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.128267

Abstract

Cocoa butter provides desirable sensory properties to chocolates; however, the exposure of chocolate to temperature variations during transportation and/or storage can lead to changes in the polymorphic form of butter, with the appearance of a dull-white film on the chocolate surface, known as fat bloom. This study investigated the use of a portable NIR spectrometer combined with chemometric tools to discriminate milk chocolate, white chocolate, 40% cocoa chocolate, and 70% cocoa chocolate samples, which were subjected to temperature abuse for 6 hours. The PCA allowed separating the samples into three classes: control at 20 °C, chocolate subjected to 35 °C, and chocolate subjected to 40 °C, for each type of chocolate studied. The PLS-DA models provided sensibility, specificity, and accuracy values in the range of 80 to 100%, and allowed identifying the wavelengths associated with the different chocolates that most impacted the construction of the models.

Keywords: Cocoa butter; NIR spectroscopy; PCA; PLS-DA; Polymorphism; Storage temperature.

MeSH terms

Chocolate / analysis*
Fatty Acids / analysis*
Fatty Acids / chemistry*
Food Analysis / methods*
Spectrophotometry, Infrared / instrumentation*
Temperature
Time Factors

Substances

Fatty Acids