RESUMO
The aim of this work was to provide recent fatty acid (FA) profiling of chocolates and chocolate products, principally C18:1 trans FAs (TFAs). Thirty-two samples were analyzed by gas chromatography and FAs were quantified. The total TFA content declared in chocolate labeling and the real TFA content were compared. The TFA content ranged from 0.04 to 2.51 g/100 g of sample, and it was noticed that several manufacturers were underestimating the total TFA content in their labeling. The main TFA isomers quantified were C18:1 trans-9 (0.006-0.244%), C18:1 trans-10 (0.009-0.392%), and C18:1 trans-11 (0.013-0.464%), expressed in g/100 g of sample. Principal component analysis was used to discriminate industrial fats from natural trans fats based on the isomeric TFA profile and dairy fat (DF) biomarkers allowing to group samples in four clusters: high TFA content and high DF content, high TFA content and low DF content, low TFA content and high DF content, and low TFA content and low DF content.