Determination of the milk fat content of fat mixtures

Abstract

Methods for the determination of the milk fat content of fat mixtures are usually based on a butyric acid determination. This fatty acid is specific for milk fat. A conversion factor is used to calculate the milk fat content from the butyric acid content of the mixture. When applying this procedure, the natural variation of the butyric acid content of milk fat is not taken into consideration. Recently published data show that a considerable error may thus be introduced, making the interpretation of analytical results difficult. It is therefore proposed to envisage a control procedure which takes this aspect into consideration.

Keywords

• analysis
• butyric acid
• fat mixtures
• milk fat