Practical Determination of Solid Fat Content in Fats and Oils by Single-Wavelength Near-Infrared Analysis

The melting profile of solid fat content (SFC) is an important parameter for many fat-based food products, such as solid matrices, emulsions, and dispersions, since it can provide essential information on product stability, physical appearance, spreadability, mouthfeeling, particles adsorption and coalescence, and on the release of compounds in the encapsulation technology. The current standard techniques to measure SFC, namely, pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), provide accurate results but require expensive instrumentation and trained personnel. On the other hand, techniques are needed for fast, in situ measurements by generic operators along production lines to control industrial processes. In this paper, a novel technique to measure SFC in vegetable fats and oils is presented that could be implemented in the form of a low-cost, portable electronic system. The method is based on single-wavelength (835 nm) optical measurements during a thermal cycle of the sample under test. The experimental results obtained with such a method are in good/excellent agreement with those provided by DSC (R2 > 0.9), thus indicating that the proposed technique could represent the basis for practical analysis in production environment, in order to evaluate the quality and the properties of liquid and solid fat food materials.