LIPID ANALYSIS
Introduction
Some of the most important properties of concern to
the food analyst are:
1. Total lipid concentration
2. Type of lipids present
3. Physicochemical properties of lipids
4. Structural organization of lipids within a food
Why we are interested in lipid analysis?
1. Nutritional importance (omega 3, saturated fat,
cholesterol, fat sol vitamins).
2. Oxidative stability of foods (stability of many
foods is affected by fatty acid composition or
presence of enzymes that act on lipids such as
lipoxygenase, lipase etc).
3. Physical properties of foods (melting behavior in
chocolate, margarine, etc.)
Components of Lipids in Foods
Triacylglycerol Phospholipids
Diacylglycerol Sterols
Monoacylglycerol Carotenoids
Free Fatty Acids Glycolipids
Waxes
Determination of Lipid Composition
Important reasons:
1. Legal – amount of saturated, unsaturated etc
2. Food quality – desirable characteristics
3. Lipid oxidation – unsaturated fatty acids
prone to oxidation
4. Adulteration – lard in fat food
Sampling method
It depends on
1. Type of food – meat, milk, margarine
2. The nature of the lipid component –
volatility, physical state
3. Type of analytical procedure used – solvent
extraction, instrumental technique
Determination of Total Lipid
Concentration
Reasons to analyze total lipid concentration:
1. Economic – not to give away expensive
ingredients
2. Legal – to conform food regulations
3. Health - development of low fat foods
4. Quality – food properties depend on the total
lipid content
Solvent Extraction
Lipids – soluble in organic solvents but insoluble
in water
Sample Preparation
Drying sample – solvent cannot easily penetrate
foods containing water
Particle size reduction – finely ground
Acid hydrolysis – to release bound lipids into
easily extractable forms
Solvent selection – choose the best solvent for
the extraction
Solvent Selection
Solvent selection is important since a solvent that is
too polar will poorly extract non-polar lipids and will
extract non-lipid materials (i.e carbohydrates)
Too non-polar will be inefficient for more polar lipids.
Ideal Solvent For Fat Extraction
High solvent power for Non flammable / not
lipids explosive
Low solvent power for Nontoxic
nonlipids Low surface tension
No residue with food
Evaporate easily (low Single compound
heat of vaporization Cheap
Low boiling point Non-hygroscopic
Ethyl ether is used a Petroleum ether is an
excellent solvent for
lot but is lipids
Very flammable More selective for
more hydrophobic
Explosion hazard lipids
Forms peroxides Non hygroscopic
Expensive Less flammable
Cheaper
Batch Solvent Extraction
Mixing sample with organic solvent in separating funnel
Shake vigorously and allow the separation either by
gravity or centrifugation
Aqueous phase is decanted off and the concentration of
lipid in the solvent is determined by evaporating off the
solvent and measure the mass lipid remaining
Have to be repeated a few times
Semi-Continuous Solvent Extraction
Used to increase efficiency of lipid extraction from
foods
Common method: Soxhlet extraction
Solvent extracts the lipids and carries them into the
flask
The lipids still remain in the solvent due to low
volatility
Continuous Solvent Extraction
Commonly used is Goldfisch method
Similar to soxhlet method except the extraction
chamber is designed.
Solvent trickles through the sample rather than
building up around it
Disadvantage: channeling of the solvent can occur
i.e. solvent may take certain routes through the
sample
GOLDFISH
Accelerated Solvent Extraction
By increase the temperature and pressure normally
used.
The effectiveness of the lipid extraction increases as
its temperature increases, but the pressure must
also be increased to keep the solvent in the liquid
state.
Advantage: reduce the amount of solvent
Supercritical Fluid Extraction
Pressurized CO2 is heated above a certain critical
temperature to become supercritical fluid
This fluid behaves like a gas to easily penetrate
into a sample and extract lipid while it also
behaves like a liquid to dissolve a large quantity of
lipids.
The CO2 extracts the lipid, and forms a separate
solvent layer, which is separated from the
aqueous components
Non-solvent Liquid Extraction Methods
1. Babcock Method
A specified amount of milk is accurately
pipetted into Babcock bottle
Sulfuric acid: breaks down the fat globule
membrane than surrounds the droplet and
thereby release the fat
Lipid is removed from the aqueous phase by
centrifuging while it is hot (55-60°C)
The neck is graduated to give the amount of
milk fat present in the food.
2. Gerber Method
Used mixture of sulfuric acid and isomyl
alcohol and a slightly different shaped bottle
Isomyl alcohol: prevent charring of the sugars
by heat and sulfuric acid
Difficult to read the fat content from
graduated flask
Faster and simpler than Babcock method
3. Detergent Method
Developed to overcome the inconvenience and safety
concerns associated with sulfuric acid
A sample is mixed with a combination of surfactants
Surfactants displace the fat globule membrane which
surrounds the emulsion droplets in milk and causes
them to coalesce and separate
Amount of fat is read after centrifugation.
Separation and analysis by
Chromatography
The most powerful analytical procedures for
separating and analyzing the properties of lipids
Information can be used:
Amount of saturated, unsaturated,
polyunsaturated and cholesterol
Degree of lipid oxidation
Detect adulteration
Determine the presence of antioxidants
Lipid fractions by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC)
A TLC plate is coated with a suitable absorbing material
and placed into an appropriate solvent.
A small amount of lipid sample to be analyzed is spotted
onto the TLC plate
With time, the solvent moves up the plate due to capillary
forces and separates different lipid fractions on the basis of
their affinity for the absorbing material
At the end of the separation, the plate is
sprayed with a dye so as to make the spots
visible
Identification of lipid present can be done by
comparing the distance that the spots move
with standards of known composition
Spots can be scraped off and analyzed
further using GC, NMR and HPLC
Fatty acid Methyl Esters (FAMEs) by Gas
Chromatography (GC)
TAG are first saponified which breaks them
down to glycerol and free fatty acids, and are
then methylated
Saponification reduces MW and methylation
reduces the polarity, both of which increase the
volatility of the lipids
The FAMEs are dissolved in a suitable organic
solvent that is injected into a GC injection
chamber.
Chemical Techniques
1. Iodine Value (IV)
IV gives a measure of the average degree of
unsaturation of a lipid: the higher the iodine
value, the greater the number of C=C double
bonds.
By definition the iodine value is expressed as
grams of iodine absorbed per 100 g of lipid.
Commonly used methods: Wijs method.
General Procedure
The lipid to be analyzed is weighed and
dissolved in a suitable organic solvent, to
which a known excess of iodine chloride is
added. Some of the ICl reacts with the double
bonds in the unsaturated lipids, while the
rest remains:
R-CH=CH-R + IClexcess R-CHI-CHCl-R + IClremaining
The amount of ICl that has reacted is determined by
measuring the amount of ICl remaining after the
reaction has gone to completion (IClreacted =IClexcess -
IClremaining).
The amount of ICl remaining is determined by
1. adding excess potassium iodide to the solution to
liberate iodine, and
2. then titrating with a sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3)
solution in the presence of starch to determine the
concentration of iodine released
Iodine itself has a reddish brown color, but this is often
not intense enough to be used as a good indication of the
end-point of the reaction.
For this reason, starch is usually used as an indicator
because it forms a molecular complex with the iodine
that has a deep blue color.
Initially, starch is added to the solution that contains the
iodine and the solution goes a dark blue.
Then, the solution is titrated with a sodium thiosulfate
solution of known molarity.
Saponification Number
The saponification number is a measure of the average
molecular weight of the triacylglycerols in a sample.
Saponification is the process of breaking down a neutral
fat into glycerol and fatty acids by treatment with alkali
The saponification number is defined as the mg of KOH
required to saponify one gram of fat.
The smaller the saponification number, the larger the
average MW of the TAG present
Procedure:
The lipid is first extracted and then dissolved in an
ethanol solution which contains a known excess of
KOH.
This solution is then heated so that the reaction
goes to completion.
The unreacted KOH is then determined by adding
an indicator and titrating the sample with HCl.
Saponification Value of Fats and Oils
Fat Saponification Value
Milk fat 210-233
Coconut Oil 250-264
Cotton seed oil 189-198
Soybean Oil 189-195
Lard 190-202
Acid Value / free fatty ACIDS
The acid value is a measure of the amount of free
fatty acids present in a given amount of fat.
The lipids are extracted from the food sample and
then dissolved in an ethanol solution containing an
indicator. This solution is then titrated with alkali
(KOH) until a pinkish color appears.
The acid value is defined as the mg of KOH necessary
to neutralize the fatty acids present in 1g of lipid.
The acid value may be overestimated if other
acid components are present in the system, e.g.
amino acids or acid phosphates.
The acid value is often a good measure of the
break down of the triacylglycerols into free
fatty acids, which has an adverse effect on the
quality of many lipids.
Physical Properties of Fats and Oils
Solid Fat Content
The solid fat content (SFC) of a lipid influences many
of its sensory and physical properties, such as
spreadability, firmness, mouthfeel, processing and
stability.
Food manufacturers often measure the variation of
SFC with temperature when characterizing lipids that
are used in certain foods, e.g., margarine and butter.
The solid fat content is defined as the percentage of
the total lipid that is solid at a particular
temperature.
Principle:
The density of solid fat is higher than the
density of liquid oil, and so there is an increase
in density when a fat crystallizes and a decrease
when it melts. By measuring the density over a
range of temperatures it is possible to
determine the solid fat content - temperature
profile
Basically, the sample is placed into an NMR
instrument and a radio frequency pulse is applied
to it.
This induces a NMR signal in the sample, whose
decay rate depends on whether the lipid is solid or
liquid.
The signal from the solid fat decays much more
rapidly than the signal from the liquid oil and
therefore it is possible to distinguish between
these two components
Techniques based on differential scanning
calorimetry are also commonly used to monitor
changes in SFC.
These techniques measure the heat evolved or
absorbed by a lipid when it crystallizes or melts.
By making these measurements over a range of
temperatures it is possible to determine the
melting point, the total amount of lipid involved in
the transition and the SFC-temperature profile.
Melting Point
Clear point. A small amount of fat is placed in a capillary tube
and heated at a controlled rate. The temperature at which
the fat completely melts and becomes transparent is called
the "clear point".
Slip point. A small amount of fat is placed in a capillary tube
and heated at a controlled rate. The temperature at which
the fat just starts to move downwards due to its weight is
called the "slip point".
Wiley melting point. A disc of fat is suspended in an alcohol-
water mixture of similar density and is then heated at a
controlled rate. The temperature at which the disc changes
shape to a sphere is called the "Wiley melting point".
Cloud point
This gives a measure of the temperature at which
crystallization begins in a liquid oil.
A fat sample is heated to a temperature where all
the crystals are known to have melted (e.g., 130oC).
The sample is then cooled at a controlled rate and
the temperature at which the liquid just goes
cloudy is determined.
This temperature is known as the cloud point, and is
the temperature where crystals begin to form and
scatter light.
It is often of practical importance to have an oil which
does not crystallize when stored at 0oC for prolonged
periods.
A simple test to determine the ability of lipids to
withstand cold temperatures without forming crystals,
is to ascertain whether or not a sample goes cloudy
when stored for 5 hours at 0oC.
Smoke point
Is the temperature at which the sample begins to
smoke when tested under specified conditions.
A fat is poured into a metal container and heated
at a controlled rate in an oven.
The smoke point is the temperature at which a thin
continuous stream of bluish smoke is first
observed.
Flash point
Is the temperature at which a flash appears at any
point on the surface of the sample due to the
ignition of volatile gaseous products.
The fat is poured into a metal container and
heated at a controlled rate, with a flame being
passed over the surface of the sample at regular
intervals.
Fire point
Is the temperature at which evolution of
volatiles due to the thermal decomposition of
the lipids proceeds so quickly that continuous
combustion occurs (a fire).
Methods of Analyzing Lipid Oxidation in
Foods
High concentration of unsaturated fatty acid are
particularly susceptible to lipid oxidation
This leads to the formation of off-flavours and
potentially toxic compounds
Lipid oxidation process consists of
Reactants – unsaturated fatty acids and O2
Primary products – peroxides and conjugated dienes
Secondary products – ketones, aldehydes, alcohols and
hydrocarbons
Oxygen Uptake
Measuring the oxygen uptake by the sample as
the reaction proceeds
Lipids is placed in a sealed container and the
amount of oxygen that must be input into the
container to keep the O2 concentration in the
head-space above the sample constant is
measured
Peroxide Value (PV)
Peroxides (ROOH) are primary reaction
products formed in the initial stages of
oxidation, and therefore give an indication of
the progress of lipid oxidation.
The lipid is dissolved in a suitable organic
solvent and an excess of KI is added:
ROOH + KIexcess ROH + KOH + I2
Once the reaction has gone to completion, the
amount of ROOH that has reacted can be
determined by measuring the amount of iodine
formed. This is done by titration with sodium
thiosulfate and a starch indicator
The amount of sodium thiosulfate required to
titrate the reaction is related to the concentration
of peroxides in the original sample
There are a number of problems with the use of
peroxide value as an indication of lipid
oxidation.
1. Peroxides are primary products that are broken down
in the latter stages of lipid oxidation. Thus, a low
value of PV may represent either the initial or final
stages of oxidation.
2. The results of the procedure are highly sensitive to
the conditions used to carry out the experiment, and
so the test must always be standardized.
Anasidine Value
Is a measure of secondary oxidation
Suitable to determine quality of crude oils and
efficiency of the processing procedures
Not suitable to detect fat oxidation
Principle: ρ-anasidine reacts with aldehyde
compounds in an oil, producing yellowish
reaction products
Thiobarbituric Acid (TBA)
It measures the concentration of relatively polar
secondary reaction products
The lipid to be analyzed is dissolved in a suitable
non-polar solvent which is contained within a flask
An aqueous solution of TBA reagent is added to the
flask and the sample is shaken which causes the
polar secondary products to be dissolved in it.
The aqueous phase is then separated from the non-
polar solvent, placed in a test-tube and heated for
20 minutes in boiling water which produces pink
color
The intensity of the pink color is measured using
UV-Vis spectrophotometer at absorbance 540 nm
Also referred as thiobarbituric acid reactive
substances (TBARS) method
Accelerated Oxidation Tests
To determine the susceptibility of the fats or oils to
oxidation as oxidation can take a long time to occur.
These methods artificially increase the rate of lipid
oxidation by exposing the lipid to heat, oxygen,
metal catalysts, light or enzymes
A typical accelerated oxidation test are
Active Oxygen Method (AOM) – a liquid sample is
held at 98°C while air is constantly bubbled
through it. Oxidation is determined by
measuring the PV or detection of rancid odors
Schaal Oven Test – A known weight of oil is
placed in an oven at a specified temperature and
time until rancidity is detected by SE or
measuring PV
Fat crystals
Temperature 30C
