Study of Fatty Acid Composition in Oils & Fats by FT-IR and GC-MS Techniques

Abstract

The dramatic rise in coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity certain cancers, rates among every aged men particularly adults and children over the past two decades has become a major public health concern. Its is observed that these changes occurred due to unbalanced diet, food containing high amount of saturated and trans fatty acids, re-using of frying oils in restaurant, fast food shops, stuff frying in low quality oils and fats, high consumption of cereal based food, mayonnaise, butter, margarine, biscuits, chips, snacks, ice-cream, etc. these like products containing high level of saturated fat and trans fats. A monitoring, treatment and labeling of oil quality is one most important job for the controlled or the resolved these problems. As well as a special techniques and method should be developed for to overcome these healths related problem, in present work, a rapid Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic trans fat (TFA) method was developed assessed for monitoring and analytical purpose. The application of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy in the assessment for the quality, stability and the determination of the and type saturation and unsaturation of oils, fats and some selected food samples was investigated. In fact, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) represents an important tool used for quality control and monitoring process in the food industry due to the cost effectiveness, improved performance and ease of use compared to other methods. It offers a powerful, rapid, reliable method of identifying the quality and origin of foods, detecting contaminated or adulterated products, or discriminating between different types of foods. Because FT-IR analysis is a physical, nondestructive method, no reagents are required and no chemical waste is produced. Various kinds of sampling accessories are available for FT-IR measurements in the transmission, transflection, or reflection mode, and thus a broad range of solid and liquid samples can be analyzed with minimal or no sample preparation. Using this system, an FTIR and GC-MS qualitative and quantitative determination of fatty acid composition and including trans fatty acid, in the fats and oils. The obtained results compared with GC-MS. the FTIR developed methods shown the similar in accuracy, and reproducibility to the GC-MS obtained results. Determination of fatty acid composition, trans fatty acids, Free fatty acids and fat contents of some selected Pakistani product such as margarines, biscuits, potato chips and cereal based foods were also analyze by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy in present work for the obtaining of true value of oil and fats stability and purity. It is observed that samples contains high amount of saturated and trans fat in maximum variety of the samples. On the other hand there was no labeling on the product.