Extension of AOAC Official Method 996.01 to the analysis of Standard Reference Material (SRM) 1846 and infant formulas

There is currently no official method for the analysis of fatty acids (incl uding trans fatty acids) in infant formulas. AOAC Official Method 996.01 fo r Fat Analysis in Cereal Products was extended to the analysis of milk-base d infant formula Standard Reference Material (SRM)1846 to determine its app licability for use with infant formulas. Following the analysis of SRM 1846 , 2 infant formulas, one milk-based liquid and one soy-based powdered infan t formula, were analyzed for total fatty acid composition. Fatty acid methy l esters were prepared and analyzed by gas chromatography, The results of t he analysis of SRM 1846 show that the mean analyzed values were highly repr oducible as indicated by low coefficients of variation (CV), The CVs were < 5% for the major fatty acids. Mean analyzed values for individual fatty aci ds in SRM 1846 were within +/- 1 standard deviation of the certificate valu es, The analyzed value for total fat as triglycerides (26.27 +/- 0.25%) agr eed well with the certificate value(27.1 +/- 0.59%). Analyses of infant for mulas showed that the concentrations of linoleic acid and fat meet the requ irements for such formulas.