GIST Research Team Develops Accurate Measurement Method for Free Fatty Acids in Food

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced on the 5th that Professor Kim Tae-young's research team from the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering has developed an analytical method that can accurately measure the amount of free fatty acids in food.

The research team found that the free fatty acid content measured by existing methods can be inflated up to twice the actual value, and identified a significant amount of exogenous free fatty acids present in the extraction containers as the main cause of the error.

They also confirmed that plastic containers used for extraction generally contain more exogenous free fatty acids compared to glass containers.

Exogenous free fatty acids refer to free fatty acids introduced through routes other than the food itself during the extraction process for analyzing free fatty acids in food.

They are known to occur due to additives used to improve surface properties during the manufacturing process of experimental consumables such as extraction containers and pipettes, or contamination from impurities.

This exogenous free fatty acid causes the problem of overestimating the fatty acid content in food.

Free fatty acids are fat components released into the blood when fat cells break down due to exercise, etc., and are used as energy sources for muscles and other metabolism, but excessive intake of free fatty acids significantly affects cardiovascular diseases including hyperlipidemia.

They are also known to be closely related to the onset of type 2 diabetes, immune diseases, and cancer.

Therefore, accurate measurement of free fatty acid content is very important nutritionally and essential for quality control of food.

However, it was revealed that existing free fatty acid analysis methods have problems with inaccurate content measurement due to exogenous free fatty acids introduced from routes other than the food during the extraction process.

The research team developed an analytical method to remove exogenous free fatty acids inside the extraction container to minimize distortion of free fatty acid content in food.

By comparing various container pretreatment methods and extraction methods, they confirmed that using methanol ultrasonic cleaning of glass test tubes combined with chloroform extraction, an experimental solvent, most effectively removes exogenous free fatty acids.

Applying the newly developed analytical method to the analysis of residual free fatty acids in skim milk reduced the content error caused by exogenous free fatty acids to 7-16%, which is about one-third of the error rate (31-45%) of existing analysis methods.

Professor Kim Tae-young said, “This research achievement improved the accuracy of food free fatty acid analysis through a new pretreatment method,” and added, “Since free fatty acids are also used as major components in cosmetics, detergents, shampoos, etc., this analytical method can be applied to quality control of free fatty acids contained in daily chemical products.”

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