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Abstract
The main concern in the Food Industry is the strict regulations on presence of trans fats and their accurate quantification. This reason has been the driving force for development of alternative methods to find accurate measurements. A partial least square (PLS) model was developed and used to verify the concentration of trans fats in margarine, butter and spread and pure vegetable oils, by Fourier-Transform Mid Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) in the wavenumber region 990-940 cm. The measurements of the trans fat content have shown an accuracy with a correlation coefficient of 0.98 obtained by the PLS model and no presence of outlier between the range of the trans fats concentrations studied (0-30%). In separate experiments, the samples were treated with multiwall carbon nanotubes and nano zinc oxide particles to determine the effect of nanomaterials in enhancement of the FT-IR spectra. Margarine, spread and butter showed the increase of the shoulder band at 1075 cm and an additional peak at 1050 cmas a result of nano carbon and zinc oxide nanopowder treatment, though there was no significant difference in the peak corresponding to trans fats. The peak at 1050 cmappears in the zone of the C-O band in the infrared spectra as result of the interaction of the nanoparticles with the food samples.