A collaborative study was conducted comparing the AOAC methods (12.022 Method I and 12.023 Method II) for the determination of fat in cacao products with the OICC Soxhlet method and a rapid refractometric method. Six samples of cacao products (breakfast cocoa, vegetable fat coating, cacao nibs, milk chocolate, sweet chocolate, and chocolate liquor) were analyzed by 7 collaborators. Results indicate that the OICC method gives better precision and somewhat lower results than the AOAC method. It is recommended (1) that the OICC method as presented, using a final HC1 concentration of 4N in the digestion step, be adopted as official first action to replace 12.023 Method II, which will be deleted official final action by suspension of the rules; (2) that study be continued to accumulate data needed to correlate the results of the analysis of cacao products by the OICC method and 12.022 Method I; and (3) that 12.022 be qualified by a statement “(Not applicable to cacao nibs unless finely ground)”.

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A rapid screening test for detecting chick edema factor in fats consists of adsorption chromatography of extracted unsaponifiables on alumina, followed by analysis of specific fractions by a microcoulometric gas chromatograph which is sensitive only to halogens. This chromatographic method appears to be more sensitive than the chick bioassay. Toxic fat yielded gas chromatographic peaks with retention times relative to aldrin of 5 or more. All samples which failed to reveal those chromatographic peaks have been shown to be nontoxic in the chick bioassay.

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