Evaluation of important fatty acid ratios in poultry feed lipids by ATR FTIR spectroscopy

A rapid, simple and reproducible single bounce attenuated total reflectance (SB-ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic method was developed for determination of the n − 6, n − 3 and ratio of n − 6:n − 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in poultry feed lipids using partial least squares (PLS) regression. Data for n − 6, n − 3 and ratio of n − 6:n − 3 was acquired by gas chromatography (GC) and used as a standard values for FTIR calibration. The best regression results were achieved using first derivatives of the 1475–650 cm−1 spectral region for n − 6, n − 3 and ratio of n − 6:n − 3 with high regression coefficients (R2) of 0.999, 0.994 and 0.998, respectively and low RMSEP values of 1, 0.06 and 0.83, respectively. The results of the present study revealed that FTIR could be used for rapid and accurate determination of n − 6, n − 3 and ratio of n − 6:n − 3 PUFAs present in poultry feed lipids.