Cocoa butter substitute
Cocoa butter substituteCocoa butter substitutes are fats formulated to behave like cocoa butter — hard at room temperature, melting sharply at body temperature — without being it. Where they are used, and how much, is what separates chocolate from a product that may not legally be called chocolate.
Where it is and isn’t permitted
| Jurisdiction | Status | Scope and limits | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Permitted | 21 CFR 184.1259retrieved 2026-09-07 | |
| Codex Alimentarius | Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited. |
What it is made from
Made from palm, shea, illipe, sal and other tropical fats by fractionation and blending to match the melting behaviour of cocoa butter.
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Every name it appears under
1 recorded name. A label may use any of them.
As it appears in regulation
- Cocoa butter substitute
Hazard reference values
No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.
Evidence and how bodies read it
Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated by hand rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.
Sources for this page
- ecfr retrieved 2026-09-07
Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.
Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/cocoa-butter-substitute.json