An official website of the United States government.
The Codex Committee on Fats and Oils have requested delegations to provide information on oils that are currently not covered by the Codex Standard, or for which the currently available data is thought to be incomplete or insufficient. <p>A reliable compositional database is required to enable the industry and regulatory authorities to carry out assessments of the authenticity of suspect oils. There is a lack of reliable data on the composition of some speciality oils including walnut, sesame seed, hazelnut and grapeseed oils. The Agency commissioned this project to update the current databases for these oils.
Authenticated samples of the four types of nuts and seeds were collected during the 2000 autumn harvest from various countries of origin including France, Germany, Spain, USA, and India. Oils were extracted and analysed for fatty acid, triglyceride, and sterol composition plus iodine value using standard methods.
<p>
The data obtained will be submitted to the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils for inclusion in the respective oil standards
<p>Find more about this project and other FSA food safety-related projects at the <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/science/research/" target="_blank">Food Standards Agency Research webpage</a>.