The Analysis of Edible Oils Using Gateway ATR FTIR

Spectroscopy is ideal for analyzing the content of oil. The Gateway multibounce ATR enables trace contamination analysis.

Edible oils are a series of related natural compounds differing in their degree of unsaturation and chain length. Chemically, these compounds are esters of various fatty acids with a single trifunctional alcohol (glycerol), and are hence called triglycerides.

The degree of unsaturation of an edible oil is an important factor in its suitability as a food product. Saturated fats in dietary products have been implicated as a contributing cause of heart disease. Consequently, there is now greater emphasis on the production of healthier brands of cooking fats, margarine and butter which contain percentages of linoleic acid (polyunsaturates).

However, polyunsaturates suffer from auto-oxidation leading to rancidity, which in the food industry has
traditionally been monitored by time-consuming titrimetric methods. Alternatively, fats and oils have been analysed by gas chromatography, where samples require prior chemical derivatisation.
Infrared spectroscopy can be complementary to these techniques for analysing edible oils. It is comparatively easy to identify absorbance bands that can be assigned to C-H vibrations in both saturated and unsaturated compounds. Peak height or area measurements allow the degree of unsaturation to be measured.

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