THE PARTITIONING OF DIACETYL BETWEEN FOOD OILS AND WATER

The distribution of diacetyl between water and oils has been determine d in order to predict whether diacetyl can offer the same level of pre servation in fatty foods as it can in non-fatty foods. The partition c oefficients were found to be approximately 0.2 for rapeseed oil and 0. 3 for olive, sunflower, and blended-vegetable oils. Experimentation sh owed that the partition coefficient could be used to predict the antim icrobial effect of diacetyl in an oil/medium system. The differences b etween the oil/water system tested and a food system are discussed.