Comparison of visual and automated colorimeter for refined and bleached cottonseed oils

Color as a fundamental quality of edible oils has been determined primarily by visual comparison. The automatic colorimeters introduced recently made it possible to avoid operator variability associated with visual color measurement. The feasibility of using an automatic colorimeter, Colourscan, to measure the color of refined and bleached cottonseed oils was investigated. Good agreement, r²=0.99, between automatic color readings vs. visual color measurement by using the Lovibond-AOCS Color Scale was obtained. Near-linear correlation of light paths from 133.4 to 2.5 mm permits dark oil to be assessed with the automatic colorimeter.