Determination of Free Fatty Acids in Sausage Meat

The aim of this work was to establish the extraction procedure, the derivatization method, the separation temperature program, the identification and quantitation of the free fatty acids from meat. A gas chromatography - mass spectrometric (GC/MS) technique was used. The fatty acids were obtained by grounding meat, water and sand and then extraction was performed by mixing chloroform:methanol (2:1) during 30 seconds, at room temperature. The fatty acids were derivatized to obtain methyl esters. A Trace DSQ ThermoFinnigan quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled with a Trace GC was used. Fatty acids were separated on a Rtx-5MS capillary column, 30m x 0.25mm, 0.25µm film thickness, using a suitable temperature program. The identification of fatty acids was obtained by comparison of fatty acids methyl esters (FAME) mass spectra with the mass spectra of FAME kits and of NIST library. Concentrations of fatty acids were calculated by using a proper internal standard.