Optimised Analysis of MCPD‐ and Glycidyl esters in Edible Oils and Fats using Fast Alkaline Transesterification and 13C‐Correction for Glycidol Overestimation: Validation including Interlaboratory Comparison

Abstract

As of March 2018, legislation has come into force within the European Union (EU) that places maximum levels on the glycidyl ester (GE) content of vegetable oils intended for use in foodstuffs for the European market. As a result, producers of edible oils are obliged to closely monitor the GE levels in all their products. Unfortunately, the three available AOCS methods to measure GE are not really suited for application in a Quality Control laboratory within a production facility, where short turnaround times are vital. AOCS Cd29c‐13 has the highest potential from a turnaround perspective, but remains disputable because it is based on a differential GE measurement. Hence, in 2016 we published an automated procedure in which the shortcomings of the AOCS Cd29c‐13 were effectively addressed.

In this article, we present the results of an interlaboratory comparison, which was organised across six laboratories in four countries. Methods involved included AOCS Cd29b‐13 as well as an optimised version of our 2016 method, which was carried out both automatically and manually. Prior to validation, several optimisations were implemented to further reduce turnaround time and improve robustness of the original method. Based on the results of the interlaboratory comparison, it is concluded that the automated procedure performs slightly better than the manual alternative. Compared to the AOCS Cd29b‐13, no significant differences were observed for various types and blends of vegetable oils.

Practical applications: Because the EU has recently enforced its legislation for maximum GE levels in edible oils, QC laboratories across the EU are looking for methods which are easily implemented. In practice, this implies high quality, low costs and high sample capacity. Food safety demands fast and reliable analysis in order to verify the quality of refined edible oils and fats. Due to the toxicological relevance of these process contaminants, turnaround time is a crucial performance parameter and any possibility of reducing analysis time has to be fully exploited. The method presented here, provides the short turnaround times required for these purposes and is validated by interlaboratory comparison. This is crucial in the coming years when new EU legislation as well as efforts by food companies will continue to push the continuation of mitigation efforts by edible oil producers.

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