Detection of fresh palm oil adulteration with recycled cooking oil using fatty acid composition and FTIR spectral analysis

ABSTRACTThere is a growing concern over the food safety issue related to increased incidence of cooking oil adulteration with recycled cooking oil (RCO). The objective of this study was to detect fresh palm olein (FPO) adulteration with RCO using fatty acid composition (FAC) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectral analyses combined with chemometrics. RCO prepared in the laboratory was mixed with FPO in the proportion ranged from 1% to 50% (v/v) to obtain the adulterated oil samples (AO). FACs for FPO, RCO, and AO were determined using gas chromatography equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The compositions of most fatty acids in RCO lied within the normal ranges of Codex standard, except for C8:0, C10:0, C11:0, C15:0, trans C18:1, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), C20:5. PUFAs showed a consistent decreasing trend with increasing magnitude of change with respect to increasing adulteration level and thus might be a good indicator for detecting FPO adulteration with ...