Fast and Simple Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Method To Measure Conjugated Linoleic Acid in Beef

• Published in: Journal of agricultural and food chemistry Vol. 58; no. 11; pp. 6562 - 6564
• Main Authors: Manzano Maria, Roberta, Colnago, Luiz Alberto, Aparecida Forato, Lucimara, Bouchard, Donald
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 09.06.2010
• Subjects: Analytical Methods; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cattle; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Linoleic Acids, Conjugated - analysis; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - methods; Meat - analysis; Meat and meat product industries; Quality Control; Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; conjugated linoleic acid; beef; Meat product; Conjugated linoleic acid; NMR spectrometry; Method; Beef
• ISSN: 0021-8561; 1520-5118
• DOI: 10.1021/jf100345e

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) are a group of linoleic acid isomers that are naturally found in food products originating from ruminants (meat and dairy). These acids have received special attention in recent years due to their potential human health benefits. Research efforts have been proposed to increase the CLA content in beef to improve public health. However, because there are more than 30 million beef cattle used each year by the American food industry, it will be necessary to ensure their content in a large number of samples. Therefore, it is important to have an inexpensive and rapid analytical method to measure CLA content in food products. Because gas chromatography (GC), a current popular method for measuring CLAs, is slow, this paper describes a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR) method that is potentially >10 times faster than the GC method. Analyses show a correlation coefficient of 0.97, indicating the capacity of NMR to quantify the CLA content in beef samples. Furthermore, the method proposed herein is simple and does not require sophisticated sample preparation.