Determination of fat in foods by compleximetric back-titration with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid

A titrimetric method has been developed for the determination of fat in solid or liquid foods. The method is based on the hydrolysis of fat, precipitation of carboxylate anions with BaII and the compleximetric back-titration of the excess of BaII with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. The relative standard deviations for the analysis of different solid foods were in the range 1.04-1.53%. Fat levels in liquid milk of as low as 0.3% were determined with good results; however, a correction had to be made, as 7.2 +/- 1% of the fatty acids comprising milk fat do not precipitate with BaII.