Analysis of fats and oils

Analytical information on fats and oils is required for trading, quality control, nutritional labeling and forensics. Development of analytical procedures was one of the historical reasons for the organization of the Society of Cotton Products Analysits; it continues as a major effort of the successor organization, the American Oil Chemists’ Society, through its Uniform Methods Committee and final publication of methods in the Society's “Official and Tentative Methods.” A review of the current status of methods development will be followed by a glimpse of methodological research currently underway.