VEGETABLE OIL

Abstract

➢ Vegetable oil adulteration can be defined as the addition of cheaper, inferior, harmful,
or unnecessary substance(s) to oil that could affect its nature and quality.
International institutions are promulgating antifraud regulations aimed at improved
control of the global trade in vegetable oil by describing fraud, thereby reinforcing
the need for reliable, rapid, simple, sensitive, and accurate analytical methods.
Currently, oils can be adulterated and yet remain within the normal compositional
ranges established by regulations. It is therefore necessary to continue developing
analytical techniques for screening and characterizing oil products. Untargeted
spectroscopic methods and targeted chromatographic methods are generally used
for this purpose, but other biomolecular, physical, and thermal techniques are
increasingly being applied to detect the adulteration of vegetable oils. This chapter
reviews recent publications on current developments and trends in the detection of
vegetable oil adulteration. The selected vegetable oils are olive oil, hazelnut oil, palm
oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, argan oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, pumpkin seed oil,
and peanut oil. The limits of detection (LODs) vary between 0.05% and 10% (v/v or
w/w), depending on the technique, vegetable oil, and adulterant. The trend is toward
lower LOD values because of improved technologies and better knowledge of the
target molecules that characterize adulterants.

➢ Vegetable oils are a group of fats that are derived from some seeds, nuts, cereal
grains, and fruits. It is important to understand that not all of these vegetable oils are
liquid oils at ambient temperatures. In addition, not all of the vegetable oils are
produced in commercial quantities, and of those that are, not all are considered to be
edible as in the sense of being a typical dietary component. Vegetable oils, as used in
foods, are comprised of complex mixtures of triacylglycerols with some minor
amounts of diacylglycerols (usually < 5%). Other minor components are
tocopherols/tocotrienols (up to 900 mg kg−1) and phytosterol esters/phytosterols (up
to 1%). The vegetable oil may be characterized confidently with expert
chromatographic analysis by determining its TAG composition, together with the fatty
acid composition and the minor components. The chemical and physical properties of
such oils will affect how they can be used in the formulation and manufacture of
foods.

➢ Vegetable oils are principally recovered from oilseeds, with oil-rich fruit such as the
fruit of the oil palm and of the olive tree providing important additional sources.
Solvent extraction is used for oil recovery from oilseeds, but in the case of palm and
olive oil, the oil is recovered by separating it from the aqueous phase present in the
fruit after crushing. Vegetable oils are for the most part refined before consumption,
refining comprising a series of steps designed to produce a bland, stable oil. Refined
oils may be modified in order to change their physical properties. Virgin, i.e.,
unrefined, olive oil plays an important part in the market for vegetable oils. Both
refining and oil modification processes are increasingly being improved in order to
conform to modern standards of a healthy food product. This entails avoiding the
formation of undesirable artefacts as well as minimizing the removal of valuable
minor components.