Effect of Triacylglycerol Composition on Functionality of Margarine Basestocks

The triacylglycerol compositions of several margarine basestocks, including blends and interesterified blends of corn and soybean oils with cottonseed oil stearine, randomized corn oil and randomized soybean oil, were determined. Quantitative results obtained by reversedphase high performance liquid chromatography for samples of known composition (randomized and interesterified samples) exhibited low average absolute errors (0.6-.8%) for the fatty acid composition calculated from the triacylglycerol composition compared to the fatty acid composition determined by gas chromatography. The evaporative light scattering detector did not give accurate quantitation with average absolute errors greater than 3%, for the noninteresterified blends, however. Accurate determination of the triacylglycerol composition allowed the study of both melting and solid fat indices with respect to the influence of unsaturated to saturated triacylglycerol groups.