Assessment of Methodologies for Calorimetric Cholesterol Assay of Meats

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to assess the critical factors influencing the values for meat cholesterol determined colorimetrically. Procedure variations tested included: no saponification of total lipid extract before color development; with 15 min saponification at 80°C, with or without antioxidant protection; and with 60 min saponification at 80°C, with or without antioxidant protection. Without the saponification step, meat cholesterol values were overestimated. Samples with a large percentage of unsaturated fatty acids yielded higher cholesterol values when lipid extracts were saponified without antioxidant protection than with. Meat cholesterol values obtained by the procedure involving 15 min saponification with antioxidant protection were similar to those obtained by a commonly used gas chromatographic procedure.