Determination of chemical properties that can be used in detection of sunflower oil adulteration with safflower oil by principal component analysis

Edible vegetable oils are a very important and indispensable source of energy for the human body. Their authenticity is an important issue for manufacturers and consumers. Expensive vegetable oils can often be adulterated by mixing them with cheaper oils with similar ingredients for economic reasons. Although many advanced methods are used to detect adulteration of vegetable oils, it is very difficult to detect adulteration because these oils have similar chemical compositions; this issue is still an unresolved problem in the world. While olive oil is the most adulterated vegetable oil; other vegetable oils may also be subject to adulteration depending on their price. Sunflower oil is one of the most consumed seed oils in the world can be mixed with other cheaper oils from time to time. The aim of the thesis study is to investigate the usability of the composition properties in order to determine the adulteration of sunflower oils with safflower oils. In order to detect adulteration even at a very low level, first of all, the unique composition properties of the oils were determined, and then mixtures of these oils were prepared in different ratios. In this context, adulterated oils were obtained by adding crude safflower and high oleic acid safflower oils to crude sunflower and sunflower oils with high oleic acid at certain rates (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 18, 22 and 26); A total of 40 oil samples obtained were subjected to detailed analysis. The fatty acid composition, triglyceride distribution, sterol distribution and tocopherol compositions of the samples were determined, and the analysis results were evaluated by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The findings showed that especially fatty acid composition and triglyceride and sterol distributions can be used to detect adulteration depending on the origin of fats. The distribution of tocopherol is not very significant in the detection of adulteration due to the sensitive and easily degradable nature of antioxidants; however, it has been determined that there may be auxiliary criteria. Key Words: Sunflower Oil, Safflower Oil, PCA, Adulteration, Fatty acids, Triglyceride, Sterols