Introduction
About two decades ago, food labeling regulations requiring the
declaration of the trans-fat content on food packaging were introduced
in several countries [1]. Available gas chromatographic (GC) methods
for the quantification of fatty acids (FA) (as methyl esters, FAME) were
redesigned to privilege the accurate quantification of the transFA (TFA) contained in partially hydrogenated oils (PHO). All revised
methods adopted 100% poly(biscyanopropyl siloxane) (BCS) capillary
columns in the format 100 x 0.25 mm, the commercial columns providing
the highest resolving capabilities for unsaturated fatty acids based on
the number and geometry of double bonds (DB). More polar columns coated
with ionic liquids, which provide even stronger selectivity, were
introduced only a decade later [2,3]. The isothermal elution at
180°C emerged as the preferred compromise for the resolution of 18:1,
18:2 and 18:3 TFA from the other FA present in PHO [4] and was
selected by the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) for its Official
Method Ce 1H-05 [5]. AOCS later introduced the sibling Official
Method Ce 1J-07 [6], adding a temperature ramp after the elution of
18:3n-3 to shorten the retention time of remaining FAME.
Ruminant fats and dairy products, rich in short chain FA (SCFA), are
generally analyzed applying a temperature gradient. Golay et al.developed a method capable of simultaneously measuring the SCFA,trans -18:1 and trans -18:2 present in ruminant fats by
applying a rapid temperature ramp [7]. This method was validated for
the quantification of TFA in milk products, infant formula, and
adult/pediatric nutritional formula [8]. The application of the
temperature program, however, resulted in the coelution oftrans -18:3 with 20:1 FA, which affects the measurement of TFA
when applying this method to the analysis of refined vegetable oils
(RVO) and PHO.
Although each method proved very effective for the analysis of the lipid
extracts it was developed for, no single method may be applied to all
extracts. To address this gap, this short communication proposes a
modification of the method of Golay et al. [7,8]. This
modified approach can be used to measure the SCFA, trans -18:1 andtrans -18:2 present in ruminant fats while simultaneously
achieving more accurate quantification of trans -18:3 present fat
in PHO and RVO.