Quantitative determination of saturated-, monounsaturated- and polyunsaturated fatty acids in pork adipose tissue with non-destructive Raman spectroscopy

The composition of dietary fat has received increased attention during the recent years because it influences human health. Seventy seven samples from pork adipose tissue and melted fat from the same tissue were measured with Raman spectroscopy. Gas chromatography analysis was conducted as reference. Iodine values (IV) ranged from 58.2 to 90.4 g iodine added per 100 g fat. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) ranged from 7.8% to 31.7% and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) from 35.2% to 51.5% of total fatty acids. When applied on pre-processed spectra of melted fat, partial least square regression (PLSR) with cross-validation gave a correlation coefficient (R) = 0.98, and root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) = 1.4 for IV, using 3 PLS factors in the model. PUFA gave R = 0.98 and RMSECV = 1.0% of total fatty acids, using 5 PLS factors. MUFA were predicted with R = 0.96 and RMSECV = 1.0% of total fatty acids, using 9 PLS factors. On adipose tissue a model with 3 PLS factors gave R = 0.97 and RMSECV = 1.8 for IV. For PUFA, a model with 3 PLS factors gave R = 0.95 and RMSECV = 1.5% of total fatty acids. For MUFA a model with 6 PLS factors gave R = 0.91 and RMSECV = 1.5% of total fatty acids. The results indicate the feasibility to use Raman spectroscopy as a rapid and non-destructive method to determine IV, PUFA, MUFA and saturated fatty acids (SFA) measured directly on pork adipose tissue and in melted fat from the same tissue.