Rapid, non-destructive determination of butter adulteration by means of photopyroelectric (PPE) calorimetry

Abstract

The study focuses on the application of the photopyroelectric (PPE) technique combined with gas chromatography to detect adulteration of cow milk-obtained butter. The thermal diffusivity and effusivity have been directly measured using back and front PPE detection, respectively, and the results have been correlated with the composition of adulterated butter samples. The back detection configuration has been used in the case of butter adulterated with palm oil, and a possible correlation of the thermal diffusivity with total amount of monounsaturated fatty acids composition has been proposed. For butter adulterated with soy milk, we used the front PPE configuration in order to measure the samples’ thermal effusivity. A strong dependence of the value of thermal effusivity as a function of soy milk content was found.