A study of the minor components of fats and oils - analytical approaches to elucidate changes due to processing and agriculture

我的NSERC研究计划的总体目标是阐明由于农业实践、石油开采和精炼、食品加工或环境过程而发生的选定油脂中次要成分的变化。有一种趋势是改变天然脂质谱，以改变功能，从而为丰富的油和脂肪来源找到新的应用。这种情况发生在作物和牲畜中，是用于赋予理想性状的育种和农业实践的结果。随后的加工可能有意改变脂质谱（例如通过氢化）或作为石油提取和精炼的副产品。采收前后的过程改变了整体脂质谱，不可避免地影响了次要的脂质成分，这可能是生物学上或功能上的重要影响。由于食品脂质构成了有价值的全球工业的基础，人们对这些商品的主要成分已经了解了很多。相比之下，目前关于脂质微量成分的知识并不总是符合现代分析化学的可达到的极限。

The overall objective of my NSERC research program is to elucidate changes in the profiles of the minor components of selected oils and fats that occur as a result of agricultural practices, oil extraction and refining, food processing or environmental processes. There is a trend to alter natural lipid profiles in order to modify functionality and hence find new applications for abundant sources of oils and fats. This occurs in crops and livestock as a result of breeding and agricultural practices used to impart desirable traits. Subsequent processing may either deliberately alter lipid profiles (e.g. by hydrogenation) or do so as a by-product of oil extraction and refining. Pre- and post-harvest processes that alter overall lipid profiles inevitably affect minor lipid components, which may be biologically or functionally significant. Since food lipids form the basis of valuable global industries, much has been learned about the bulk composition of these commodities. In contrast, present knowledge of the trace components of lipids does not always match the achievable limits of modern analytical chemistry.