FRACTIONATION OF SALAD DRESSINGS FOR FATTY-ACID PROFILE AND SOLUBLE SUGAR DETERMINATION USING THE ULTRACENTRIFUGE

An analytical method was developed for fractionating small samples of salad dressing for fatty acid profiles and soluble sugar content by us ing an ultracentrifuge. The extracted oils were characterized and comp ared with those obtained by the official AOAC ether extraction procedu re. Both methods gave similar results for fatty acid profiles and oil recoveries. The fatty acid profiles were determined by gas chromatogra phy. In addition, the sugar content of the aqueous layer of the centri fuged samples could easily be obtained by refractometry. The proposed method is time and labor efficient and eliminates the use of hazardous and flammable ether.