Fast GC for the analysis of fats and oils

Fast and conventional GC techniques were both applied to ten different lipidic matrices and the results then compared. The fats and oils were of fish, animal, and vegetable origin and were all simultaneously transesterified with acidic methanol before performing batch analysis of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) obtained. All FAMEs samples were consecutively analyzed three times by each method. The fast method significantly reduced the time required for analysis by a factor of 5 while maintaining a similar resolution. Furthermore, the reproducibility of relative quantitative data was measured on going from one method to the other. Peak identification was achieved through conventional GC-MS in combination with linear retention index values contained in a home library and information derived from comprehensive 2D GC group patterns.