Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/449

 nut fat. The addition of ordinary edible vegetable oils is easily detected by the usual chemical tests and is especially recognized by the increase in the percentage of iodin absorbed. They also reduce the melting point of cacao butter, and for this reason these oils, with the exception of coconut, are not used very extensively as adulterants. Beeswax and paraffine wax are also used to some extent as adulterants, and when used in connection with vegetable oils they serve to keep the melting point from going too low. Tallow has also been used quite extensively as an adulterant. The detection of these adulterants is so difficult as to be accomplished only by a skilled chemist.

Composition.—Cacao butter is composed chiefly of stearin and palmitin, though other fats and oils are present in small quantities. Although it is generally supposed that cacao butter does not tend to become rancid, this is a mistake, since, when exposed to the conditions which favor rancidity, the fermentation which produces this condition takes place in the butter, though somewhat more slowly and more incompletely than in many other fats. The specific gravity of cacao butter at 50 degrees C. is .892. It absorbs about 35 percent of its weight of iodin. It has a much lower melting point than palm fats and even lower than butter. Its melting point varies from 30 to 33 degrees C. Cacao butter has some of the properties of ordinary butter and has been recommended as a substitute therefor, but it is not likely that it will ever come into common use both because it is less desirable than butter and also because of its high price.

Properties.—Cacao butter has a light amber tint and tends to become bleached on long standing. It has a very pleasant flavor, reminding one of the flavor of the preparations of chocolate. At ordinary temperature, 70 degrees F., it is quite solid and sometimes even brittle.

Coconut Oil or Butter.—This is a very abundant natural fat and is obtained from the kernel of the coconut, especially the two species Cocos nucifera L. and Cocos butyracea L. At ordinary temperature coconut oil is of the consistency of fat. Its taste is pleasant, and it possesses an odor which is not disagreeable or undesirable. It differs from cacao butter in the ease with which it becomes rancid, at which time it takes on a very disagreeable flavor and taste. The coconut oil of commerce is distinguished by different names, according to the country in which it is made.

Cochin oil is a variety which is regarded as of the finest quality, being almost colorless, and is prepared in Malabar.

Ceylon oil is another very important variety made in the neighborhood of and imported from Ceylon. It is regarded as of somewhat inferior variety to Cochin oil, due probably to less care taken in the cultivation of the plant and the preparation of the oil.

Another variety of coconut oil is known as copra oil. The term "copra" is applied to the sun-dried or kiln-dried kernel of the coconut. In this dried