Determination of the Adulteration of Butter with Margarine by Using Fat Constants

This study focused on the adulteration of butter by margarine. The samples of pure butter, pure margarine and replacement of butter with margarine at a ratio of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90% were prepared and fat constants including the Melting Point (MP), Refractive Index (RI), Reichert-Meissl Number (R-MN), Polenske Number (PN), Saponification Number (SN) and Iodine Number (IN) were measured for 66 samples (2 margarine types x 11 margarine replacements x 3 replicates). The types and addition levels of margarine significantly influenced the MP, R-MN, PN, SN, IN (P<0.01) and RI (P<0.05) of the samples. The fat constants in the samples became closer to margarine by increasing the levels of margarine. For each margarine added samples, the MP, R-MN, SN and IN were found to be statistically significant. According to these results, the MP, R-MN, SN and IN can be reliably used to differentiate margarine added butter from pure butter. The results were also supported by correlation analysis. As a result of this research, taking advantage of the R-MN, the following formula was developed to determine the addition of margarine to butter. Margarine adulteration rate (%)= 100.73 - (3.84 x Reichert-Meissl number), (F = 12830.43**)