One‐step extraction/methylation method for determining the fatty acid composition of processed foods

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Abstract
In a one‐step extraction/methylation (OSM) method for determining individual fatty acids (FA) in processed food products, freeze‐dried samples, containing 10–50 mg fat, were transmethylated without prior fat extraction with a mixture of methanol‐HCl/toluene. After washing the organic phase the formed FA methyl esters were ready for separation by gas‐liquid chromatography (GLC). The relative standard deviation for total FA content was <3.5%, regardless of the food type analyzed. Furthermore, the FA composition of selected fatty foods as obtained by the OSM procedure was almost identical with the FA composition of the pure fats extracted by the Soxhlet procedure and with chloroform‐methanol, respectively. The OSM method is inexpensive and simple to perform and is, therefore, well suited for nutrient labeling studies, especially in situations where many samples have to be analyzed for their total FA content.