REPRESENTATIVE DETERMINATION OF THE BUTYRIC-ACID CONTENT IN EUROPEAN MILK FATS

For quantifying the milk fat proportion in mixed fats by analysis of t he butyric acid (C4) content, the mean content of C4 in pure milk fats has to be known. Because of the diversity of such data, this study wa s performed to determine a reliable mean value based on a representati ve choice of samples. Thus, 136 milk fats from 9 European countries we re selected by their content of the triglyceride C54 to represent a no rmally distributed collection of samples from most different feeding c onditions. In these milk fats the content of butyric acid was determin ed gas chromatographically by an internal standard. The individual res ults expressed as mass fraction of fat were almost normally distribute d as well. The resulting mean content of 3.42 g butyric acid per 100 g of fat leads to a factor of 29.24 that allows to calculate the milk f at proportion from the analyzed butyric acid content in a mixed fat.