Analyzing Fats & Oils

The terms fat, oil, and lipid are often used interchangeably by food scientists. Sometimes, fat is used to describe lipids that are solid at a selected temperature, and oil is used to describe lipids that are liquid at the same temperature.

Lipids are a major component of foods and important to our diets. They provide energy and essential nutrients, determine many physical characteristics of foods (e.g., flavor, texture, mouthfeel, and appearance), and contribute to physicochemical properties (e.…