Characterization of macadamia and pecan oils and detection of mixtures with other edible seed oils by Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Authenticating fats and detecting their adulteration with substantially cheaper fats can pose major problems for producers of high-value oils for nutritional and cosmetic use. In this work, we used Raman spectroscopy to discriminate macadamia and pecan oils from other, cheaper vegetable oils including corn and sunflower oils. This technique additionally allows one to detect and assess the adulteration of macadamia oil with another vegetable oil.