In certain areas of Brazil's Northeast a kind of handmade butter denominated "manteiga de garrafa" is produced that doesn't present identity and quality parameters established by legislation. With views to propose identity and quality patterns for this product, two brands of this butter (A and B) of wide commercialization in the city of Recife were analyzed through determination of lipids, moisture, sodium chloride and non-lipid extract, fatty acid composition, iodine value, saponification value, refraction index, melting point, Kreiss test, peroxide value, acidity, microbial quality and organoleptic evalution. According to results, the product contains 99.65--99.75% of lipids, 0.2% of moisture, absence of sodium chloride and non-lipid extract; both butters presented high peroxide value (1.97--2.90mEq/Kg), acidity (0.39--0.62 acid oleic %), negative Kreiss reaction and reduced quantity of trans-fatty acid; iodine value, saponification value, refractive index, melting point and fatty acid composition were similar to the milky products; absence of microorganisms and slight flavor of rancidity was an intrinsic characteristic. These results demonstrate the close similarity between "manteiga de garrafa" and butteroil although they differ from each other on their quality parameters. The data suggest a proposal of similar identity and quality parameters for "manteiga de garrafa" to that established for butteroil in the effective legislation.
butter; quality; identity; characteristics; trans fatty acids
