A review of free fatty acid determination methods for palm cooking oil

Abstract

Abstract Free fatty acids (FFA) is one of the main content of palm cooking oil. High percentage of FFA in palm oil can affect human health and the quality of palm oil. Based on quality standards specification set by Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB), the allowable content of free fatty acid (FFA) for crude palm oil (CPO) must not exceed 5%, meanwhile less than 0.1% of FFA in Refined Bleached Deodorized Oil (RBDO). There are many researches have been carried out to determine the level of FFA. However, they are using different type of cooking oil. A few researches are also reported regarding the palm cooking oil but they are using different method such as titration, spectroscopic, gas chromatography, reflection method and other type of detectors. All methods to determine the amount of free fatty acids (FFA) in palm cooking oil are reviewed in this paper.