EDIBLE OIL ANALYSIS BY FTIR SPECTROSCOPY

Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy offers a new way of app roaching edible oil analysis and is well on its way to being developed into a utilitarian quality control tool. This paper provides a brief overview of FTIR spectroscopy, the key elements associated with develo ping a suitable fats and oils analytical system (sample handling, cali bration development, validation, calibration stability and transfer pr ogramming and automation), some methods that have been implemented and the basic elements of a typical fats and oils FTIR analytical package . it is foreseen that a number of standard AOCS methods will be replac ed by this technology allowing a variety of chemical and physical anal yses to be carried out on neat fats and oils in under 2 minutes per sa mple. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.