Detection of interesterified fats in hydrogenated fats

Interesterification of fats is being used increasingly as an alternative to hydrogenation in preparing shortening and margarine bases. The detection of interesterified fats in vanaspati (a hydrogenated fat) is relevant because of possible adulteration problems. Either palmitic acid-rich or stearic acid-rich interesterified fats were blended with 13 market samples of hydrogenated fat (vanaspati) and examined by on-plate lipase hydrolysis of glycerides, gas chromatographic determination of fatty acids of the isolated 2-monoglycerides and calculation of two emperical indices. These were R₁, the ratio of the amounts of palmitic acid present in the 2-position to that in the total glyceride, and R₂, the ratio of saturated acid present in the 2-position to total saturated fatty acid in the fat. The vanaspati, R₁ was always below 10 and R₂ was always below 20. The presence of 5–10% interesterified fat raised both figures and offered a suitable basis for the detection of interesterified fats in hydrogenated fats.