Edible oil adulterations: Current issues, detection techniques, and health hazards

Abstract

Edible oils are used as cooking or frying medium, salad oil or in food products formulation. They are important from nutritional point of view but ensuring their purity is a concern since old times. Because of their greater demand in national and international market adulteration in high price oil with low price oil is a major issue. It can affect the health of consumers adversely. Mustard oil adulterated with argemone oil and butter yellow has been reported to cause gall bladder cancer. Similarly, argemone oil mixed with edible oils can lead to epidemic dropsy, glaucoma and loss of eyesight. Therefore there is an urgent need for authentication and prevention of adulteration for the sake of consumers. A spectrophotometric method for detection and quantification of adulteration of sunflower, corn and soybean oils in olive oil was developed. ESI-MS fingerprinting analysis has also been applied to differentiate olive oil from the five other edible oils. GC/MS is used to classify five kinds of edible oils into five groups for authenticity assessment. Argemone oil adulteration in mustard oil can be determined by HPTLC. The HPTLC fingerprinting can also be used for identification and estimation of mineral oil in various vegetable oils. The presence of palm kernel olein as adulterant in virgin coconut oil can be successfully detected by using FTIR spectroscopy. as health of the consumers is top priority so the purity of edible items is of utmost concern. Utilizing advance techniques for adulteration detection, we can help to reduce consumer’s health risks.