Detection of pig and buffalo body fat in cow and buffalo ghees by differential scanning calorimetry

Abstract

Abstract Adding small amounts of pig or buffalo body fat to cow or buffalo ghee results in the appearance of an extra peak located at high temperature in the melting and crystallization curves as determined by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique. Ghee adulterations with these animal fats at levels down to 5% are clearly seen in the crystallization diagrams. Quantitative measurements can be obtained by this method in the case of adulterations with buffalo body fat. On the other hand, this method does not detect vegetable oils such as coconut oil, and gives similar results for cottonseed‐fed buffalo ghee and ghee adulterated with animal body fats.