Determination of total, saturated, and monounsaturated fats in foodstuffs by hydrolytic extraction and gas chromatographic quantitation: collaborative study.

Using gas chromatography (GC), 10 collaborating laboratories measured total, saturated, and monounsaturated fats in 8 blind duplicate pairs of foodstuffs. The method involves a hydrolysis/ether extraction of fat followed by quantitative GC analysis versus an internal standard. Calculations were designed to comply with federal regulations as specified in the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. The range of fat contents was about 1-50%. Collaborators received and analyzed (in triplicate) a pre-collaborative sample of known fat content as a practice sample. After satisfactory results were obtained, participants received the 16-sample set. The repeatability standard deviations (RSDr) for total fat ranged from 2.04 to 10.6%; the reproducibility standard deviations (RSDR) for total fat ranged from 3.74 to 15.8%. The hydrolytic extraction-GC method for determination of fat (total, saturated, and monounsaturated) in foodstuffs has been adopted first action by AOAC INTERNATIONAL.