Comparison of two derivatization methods for the analysis of fatty acids and trans fatty acids in bakery products using gas chromatography

Two different procedures for the methylation of fatty acids (FAs) and trans fatty acids (TFAs) in food fats were compared using gas chromatography (GC-FID). The base-catalyzed followed by an acid-catalyzed method (KOCH3/HCl) and the base-catalyzed followed by (trimethylsilyl)diazomethane (TMS-DM) method were used to prepare FA methyl esters (FAMEs) from lipids extracted from food products. In general, both methods were suitable for the determination of cis/trans FAs. The correlation coefficients (r) between the methods were relatively small (ranging from 0.86 to 0.99) and had a high level of agreement for the most abundant FAs. The significant differences (P = 0.05) can be observed for unsaturated FAs (UFAs), specifically for TFAs. The results from the KOCH3/HCl method showed the lowest recovery values (%R) and higher variation (from 84% to 112%), especially for UFAs. The TMS-DM method had higher R values, less variation (from 90% to 106%), and more balance between variation and %RSD values in intraday and interday measurements (less than 4% and 6%, resp.) than the KOCH3/HCl method, except for C12:0, C14:0, and C18:0. Nevertheless, the KOCH3/HCl method required shorter time and was less expensive than the TMS-DM method which is more convenient for an accurate and thorough analysis of rich cis/trans UFA samples.