Detection of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in food products based on fatty acid composition.

Abstract

Partially hydrogenated oils (PHO), the products of incomplete hydrogenation of edible oils with hydrogen gas in the presence of a catalyzer, were originally introduced into food commerce more than a century ago. Over the years, PHOs became the preferred choice for many food applications, as their production techniques and composition were optimized to meet specific technological, and stability demands. Since the beginning of the current century, several countries adopted regulations aimed to curtail the dietary intake of PHOs. To date, no method is available for the detection of PHOs in commercial fats and oils. While the presence of high amounts of trans fatty acids may be correlated with the presence of a PHO, particularly for trans-octadecenoic fatty acids, low trans-fat PHO may also be present in the marketplace. In this study, we evaluated which fatty acids or combination of fatty acids may be used as markers to detect the presence of a PHO in commercial fats or oils. The possibility of detecting the presence of a PHO (product of chemical hydrogenation) in presence of a dairy fat (product of biohydrogenation) is also discussed.