Analytical Services

Quality Traits
Oil crops are being developed for improved fatty acid levels to provide a healthier product to the consumer. We can determine fatty acid content using a gas chromatograph, providing fast accurate results. We support oil breeding projects by providing analysis on a few seeds allowing individual plant’s potential to be determined.

Many food processors are analyzing their raw product to verify improvements for one or more fatty acids.  Our method for analyzing commercial seed lots is validated by other laboratories and is subject to proficiency testing ensuring accuracy of your results.

We provide oil analysis for:

• Soybeans
• Sunflower
• Safflower
• Peanuts
• Canola
• Flax

Oil analysis
Oil from single seeds or composite bulk samples is extracted using organic solvent.  The fatty acids in the oil are then processed to form fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs).  These FAMEs are volatile and are analyzed with gas chromatograph (GC). Results are expressed as a percentage of the main fatty acids (Figure 1) and are generally available within 48 hours.

Figure 1.  Example chromatogram from a low linolenic soybean showing the five fatty acids and the resulting test report.  As the FAMEs exit  the GC column they pass through a Flame Ionization Detector (FID) giving the readout above.  The area under the peaks is then measured using ChemStation software to calculate the amount present.