Confirmation of buffalo tallow in anhydrous cow milk fat using gas liquid chromatography in tandem with species-specific polymerase chain reaction

Analytical approaches for the determination of adulterated animal fats and vegetable oils in food and non-food samples

Edible oils and fats are crucial components of everyday cooking and the production of food products, but their purity has been a major issue for a long time. High-quality edible oils are contaminated with low- and cheap-quality edible oils to increase profits. The adulteration of edible oils and fats also produces many health risks. Detection of main and minor components can identify adulterations using various techniques, such as GC, HPLC, TLC, FTIR, NIR, NMR, direct mass spectrometry, PCR, E-Nose, and DSC. Each detection technique has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, chromatography offers high precision but requires extensive sample preparation, while spectroscopy is rapid and non-destructive but may lack resolution. Direct mass spectrometry is faster and simpler than chromatography-based MS, eliminating complex preparation steps. DNA-based oil authentication is effective but hindered by laborious extraction processes. E-Nose only distinguishes odours, and DSC directly studies lipid thermal properties without derivatization or solvents. Mass spectrometry-based techniques, particularly GC-MS is found to be highly effective for detecting adulteration of oils and fats in food and non-food samples. This review summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of these analytical approaches and their use in conjunction with chemometric tools to detect the adulteration of animal fats and vegetable oils. This combination provides a powerful technique with enormous chemotaxonomic potential that includes the detection of adulterations, quality assurance, assessment of geographical origin, assessment of the process, and classification of the product in complex matrices from food and non-food samples.

A novel approach to detect highly manipulated fat adulterant as Reichert-Meissl value-adjuster in ghee (clarified butter) through signature peaks by gas chromatography of triglycerides

Ghee, the clarified butter fat being the costliest fat among other edible oils and fats in India, prone to adulteration with highly manipulated cheaper oils/fats, especially during lean season. The present investigation carried on triglycerides profile of one of the latest components of the adulterant fat i.e. RM (Reichert-Meissl)-adjuster, has been exploited to check the adulteration of ghee with a newly emerged highly manipulated fat. Using standardized (S)-limits specified by the ISO/IDF for cow milk fat, the minimum level of detection of the adulterant fat was observed as 7.5%. However, in case of buffalo ghee, due to non-availability of the ISO/IDF limits, the detection of this adulterant fat in buffalo ghee was not possible. Gas chromatograms showed specific signature peaks of large size in the retention time region of 4.5 to 6.5 min for RM-adjuster and adulterant fat, whereas no such peaks were observed in pure cow and buffalo ghee samples. The new approach of zooming in and superimposing of selected peaks in the chromatograms of triglycerides of suspected ghee has been used as a strategy to find adulterant fat's presence. Through this approach, the addition of RM-adjusted highly manipulated foreign fat (adulterant fat) to the tune of even 0.5% could be achieved in both cow as well as buffalo ghee.