CAPILLARY SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED-SPECTROSCOPY STUDY OF TRIGLYCERIDES AND THE QUALITATIVE-ANALYSIS OFNORMAL AND UNSATURATED CHEESES

Capillary supercritical fluid chromatography (cSFC)-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR)-flame ionization detection (FID) has bee n used to examine the separation of a synthetic mixture of saturated t riglycerides. A careful study of the on-line FT-IR spectra of the sepa rated components revealed that relative absorption intensities of the infrared peaks corresponding to the antisymmetric CH2 stretching and c arbonyl (C=O) stretching modes were related to the carbon number of an individual triglyceride. A comparison of the FT-IR spectra obtained i n cSFC-FT-IR-FID separations of a cheese said to be high in unsaturate s (''Flora'' cheese) and a cheddar cheese showed that the Flora cheese does indeed contain only unsaturated triglycerides. The cheddar chees e contained many more triglyceride components, most of which correspon d to saturated species. Comparison with the synthetic saturated trigly ceride mixture showed that the speciation of some of the cheddar chees e components can be carried out.