Gas Chromatography in Butter Authentication

Butter fraud is a serious problem that affects public health and economic interests. Technological authentication is unreliable because the composition of fatty acids depends on the season, the breed of cows, their diet, etc. As a result, a deviation detected does not necessarily mean an adulteration. Updated State Standard GOST R 52253-2004 (2025) specifies butter and butter paste from the milk of farm animals. It gives a detailed authentication procedure for the fatty phase in butter with non-dairy fats. This article introduces an algorithm for detecting dairy fraud by chromatography. The research featured samples of milk fat, animal and vegetable fats, and samples with 50 and 80% of non-dairy fat. The sterol and fatty acid profile was determined for each sample. The cholesterol content in the fat phase proved to correlate with the milk fat content. The milk fat samples and the samples with beef fat hadthe sterol fraction that consisted mostly of cholesterol. The abundance of cholesterol did not guarantee authenticity, so the fatty acid composition in the fat phase had to be measured. Replacing milk fat with beef fat reduced the content of saturated fatty acids, e.g., butyric, lauric, myristic, and palmitic acids. Vegetable fats were rich in unsaturated fatty acids, e.g., linoleic and oleic acids. Chromatographic methods were able to identify adulterated dairy products based on their sterol and fatty acid composition.