Publication no. C-2001-0611-03R |  VIEW ARTICLE

NOTE: Rapid Methods for Milled Rice Surface Total Lipid and Free Fatty Acid Determination.

H. S. Lam (1) and A. Proctor (1,2). (1) Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72704. (2) Corresponding author. E-mail: <aproctor@mail.uark.edu> Phone: 501 575-2980. Fax: 501 575-6936. Cereal Chem. 78(4):498-499. Accepted March 26, 2001. Copyright 2001 American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc.

Total lipids and free fatty acid (FFA) determination is widely used in the food industry to assess the quality of milled rice. An improved rapid ambient temperature isopropanol (IPA) extraction method to determine milled rice surface lipid was more effective than Soxhlet solvent extraction. The improved method was probably due to better extraction of polar lipids and antioxidants by IPA. A colorimetric method to determine FFA requiring only 30 µL of sample is also described. The new technique provides results similar to those obtained using the slower, conventional acid-base titration method. The colorimetric FFA method requires a smaller sample size, has greater precision, and is more objective. The new methods are particularly suitable for industrial use in providing rapid results for large numbers of samples.