Determination of fat content in foods by analytical SFE

Analytical supercritical fluid extraction (WE) is finding widespread application in the analysis of foodstuffs, agriculturally derived materials, and natural products. The high efficacy that SE demonstrates toward the removal of oils and fats from such matrices makes it a natural technique for the determination of their fat and oil content. In this review, we have highlighted what is essential experimentally to optimize the SFE of fat and other lipid moieties from meats, oilseeds, snack foods, and cereal products. The role of extraction pressure/temperature and sample preparation before SFE is particularly emphasized as well as the inclusion of sorbenrs into the extraction process for controlling the molecular specificity of the extraction or the coextraction of water. Application of analytical SFE for total and speciated fat determination is cited for both home-built as well as both manual and automated commercial instrumentation. Finally, an appraisal of the future of the technique is made with respect to its acceptance as an official analytical method and the crucial interface between the end-user and the instrumentation companies that produce the analysis modules.