Two methods for determining erucic acid in edible fats and oils: results from a collaborative study on a rapid, open-tubular (capillary) GLC method and comparison with an isolation TLC procedure.

The results of an international collaborative study for the determination of 5% erucic acid in four samples of edible fats and oils with differing levels of 22:1 isomers other than erucic acid, based on the use of wall-coated (SILAR-5CP) open-tubular gas-liquid chromatography, are examined. The same samples had been analyzed in a separate collaborative study by an alternative and more complex method based on argentation thin-layer chromatography. Both methods rejected about the same proportion of participating laboratories and a few individual results from otherwise acceptable laboratories. The means and repeatabilities of the two methods were similar, but the gas-liquid chromatographic method showed better reproducibility.