The crystallization of cocoa butter and alternative fats. I.—an adiabatic calorimeter and its application to the thermal analysis of cocoa butter

An adiabatic calorimeter is described, suitable for investigating the thermal characteristics and phase composition of fats over a wide temperature range. Specific heats and differences in heat content are measured with maximum errors of 5% and 0.7% respectively. Sources of error in the calculation of percentages of solid and liquid phase from the data are discussed. Results are given for six samples of cocoa butter. Possible reasons are considered for the rise in the specific heat curve observed at about −20°.