Short communicationApplication of triacylglycerol polymer determination in the quality evaluation of vegetable oil

- TGP profiles were established by HPSEC.
- Vegetable oils and waste cooking oils were differentiated by the difference on TGP contents.
- TGP showed an application potential on the identification of cold pressed or refined oils.
- The determination of TGP content could be an effective way for quality evaluation of vegetable oils.

The stability and low volatility of triacylglycerol polymer (TGP) makes it a reliable index for evaluating the oxidative levels of vegetable oils. The present work established the TGP profiles for 12 different types of vegetable oils commonly observed in the market and 44 waste cooking oil samples by high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) analysis. The TGP contents of vegetable oils ranged from 0.10% to 1.67%, while those of waste cooking oils were between 3.18% and 18.75%. Moreover, the TGP contents were applied for differentiating vegetable and waste cooking oils, and vegetable oils were processed by cold pressed and refined technology. The results from this study demonstrated that TGP quantification had a promising prospect for the quality evaluation of vegetable oils.