The objective of this note focuses on the fully automated solution of the determination of 3-monochloropropanediol (3-MCPD) and glycidol in edible oils based on the AOCS Cd 29a-13 methods. This method is also applicable for the determination of 2-monocloropropanediol (2-MCPD).
The glycidyl esters first react with acidified sodium bromide to form its 3-monobromopropanediol (3-MBPD) ester form. Following which, 3-MBPD, 2-MCPD and 3-MCPD esters undergo acidic transesterification to release to their respective free forms. Following derivatisation, the derivatives of each these compounds are analysed. The fully automated method is then subsequently applied to refined bleached deodorized palm oil samples to determine the levels of these contaminants in this study. It shows good correlation with the reference manual method under the validation with the statistical t-test – there is no significant difference.
The use of the automation preparation simplifies the analysis of 3-MCPD and glycidol, which can be applied without the need for multiple specialised technicians and yet optimising the sample throughput. In addition, automation also minimises the possibility of any human error during sample preparation and allows shorter analysis time to be attained.
