Solid Fat Content Estimation by Differential Scanning Calorimetry: Prior Treatment and Proposed Correction

The objective of this work was to develop a corrected method for solid fat content estimation by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), as important differences are usually observed between the results given by DSC and pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Cold storage after full melting of fats was necessary to avoid the appearance of exothermic peaks in the modulated temperature DSC thermograms, in order to make an appropriate estimation of melting energy. Different fats were analyzed by NMR and DSC, obtaining considerably higher solid fat content values with the latter, uncorrected method. These differences were attributed to the fact that consumed energy per unit of melted mass tends to increase with the increase of the melting temperature of each fraction of the fats. A linear correlation between melting enthalpy and melting point of different triglycerides was used to estimate the energy per unit of mass consumed at each temperature. From these data, an estimated transformation of melting energy into melted mass was performed and new solid fat content values were calculated. The results obtained from this correction were much closer to the measurements made by NMR, in comparison to the uncorrected DSC method.