LC-MS-based glyceride profiling of cold-pressed fruit seed oils for effective authenticity testing

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Lipidomics

Background:

• Cold-pressed fruit seed oils (blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry) are popular functional foods.
• Their unique nutritional profiles necessitate quality and authenticity assessments.
• Glyceride composition is key to characterizing these oils.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize glyceride profiles of blackcurrant, raspberry, and strawberry seed oils.
• To develop methods for detecting adulteration using lipidomics and chemometrics.
• To ensure the quality and authenticity of high-value fruit seed oils.

Main Methods:

• Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/QTOF-MS) for lipidomic analysis.
• Chemometric methods, including Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), for data analysis.
• Targeted metabolomic analysis for specific marker identification.

Main Results:

• Identified 215 glycerides across the three fruit seed oils.
• Triacylglycerol (TAG) profiles proved more effective than diacylglycerol (DAG) profiles for oil differentiation and adulteration detection.
• OPLS-DA identified 28 TAGs as significant markers for distinguishing the oils.
• Adulteration with 5% or more sunflower or rapeseed oil was detectable.
• Commercial raspberry and strawberry seed oils were confirmed to be adulterated using specific sunflower oil markers.

Conclusions:

• Glyceride profiling, particularly TAGs, is a powerful tool for authenticating fruit seed oils.
• Combined lipidomics and chemometrics can reliably detect adulteration.
• Analytical methods are crucial for maintaining the integrity of functional food ingredients.