A rapid screening technique for vegetable oil identity by sub-ambient DSC

Abstract

Vegetable oils are widely used in the food industry. Labeling requirements have alerted the consuming public to the presence of vegetable oils and to the wide variety of oils used. Vegetable oils are selected commercially for their physical properties, price and availability, and many ingredient labels contain the ‘and/or’ clause reflecting the interchangeability of food grade vegetable oils. A ‘fingerprinting’ method has been developed utilizing the characteristic sub-ambient liquid—solid and solid—solid transitions of vegetable oils. The DSC was used in the temperature range 320 to 220 K. The cooling curves and their first derivatives were recorded for a pattern recognition library of pure vegetable oils, mixtures of oils, and oils present in standard cookie dough. This pattern library will serve as the basis for rapid verification of identity for vegetable oils, mixtures of oils and oils in commercially prepared food products.