New certified reference material ERM-BD801: cocoa butter for calibrating methods that detect foreign fats in chocolate
On 26 August 2026 the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) announced ERM-BD801, a cocoa butter certified for five triacylglycerols. It replaces IRMM-801, exhausted after about 20 years of use, against which methods for detecting and quantifying cocoa butter equivalents in chocolate are calibrated.
- Directive 2000/36/EC limits vegetable fats other than cocoa butter (cocoa butter equivalents, CBEs) to a maximum of 5% of the finished product, and their presence must be declared on the label. Compliance is checked by triacylglycerol profiling — an approach developed at the JRC which, after international collaborative trials, was adopted in ISO 23275-1:2006, ISO 23275-2:2006 and ISO 11053:2009 and in AOCS methods Ce 11-05 and Ce 11a-07.
- The methods are calibrated against a certified cocoa butter; according to the JRC, without this calibrant or if it is used incorrectly, the whole approach loses its metrological reliability. ERM-BD801 is certified for the same five triacylglycerols as IRMM-801, which preserves the established control system; the JRC also provides the CoCal-1 and CoCal-2 toolboxes with the methods, the calibration material and electronic evaluation sheets.
- Certified values (relative mass fraction of the total of the five triacylglycerols, g/100 g; expanded uncertainty with k = 2): POP 18.06 ± 0.29, POS 44.99 ± 0.34, POO 1.85 ± 0.14, SOS 32.57 ± 0.40 and SOO 2.53 ± 0.14. They were obtained by gas chromatography with flame ionisation detection according to ISO 23275-2:2006 or AOCS Ce 11-05, and the uncertainty was estimated in accordance with ISO 17034:2016 and ISO 33405:2024.
- Each ampoule contains at least 5 g of West African cocoa butter with the antioxidant TBHQ, filled under an inert atmosphere; the minimum sample amount is 0.2 g, and the material is stored at −20 °C ± 5 °C in the dark. Before opening, the ampoule is warmed at no more than 50 °C ± 5 °C until the fat has melted completely and vortex-mixed for at least one minute; the contents are used on the day of opening — repeated sampling from one ampoule has not been tested.