AN INTERCOMPARISON OF METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF TOTAL FAT IN AMEAT REFERENCE MATERIAL

An intercomparison of methods for the determination of total fat in a ''fresh'' meat reference material with 18 experienced laboratories fro m 10 European countries is described. The ''fresh'' meat reference mat erial has been produced by the Swedish Meat Research Institute (SMRI) and has been certified under supervision of the National Food Administ ration (NFA), Sweden for moisture, ash, fat, N, protein, Na, NaCl, and hydroxyproline [1]. The participating laboratories received two cans of the meat reference material and were asked to measure the fat conte nt in duplicate by means of a method based on acid hydrolysis (prefera bly the Weibull-Stoldt-method). After elimination of outliers particip ants achieved a very high degree of between laboratory agreement (S(w) > S(b)). The mean fat content (g/100 g) found was 21.11 +/- 0.11 (n = 13) which agreed favourably with the value of 20.8 +/- 0.58 g/100 g o btained previously by 31 Swedish food laboratories.