AB-315
Determination of free fatty acids (FFA) in edible oils with thermometric titration
Summary
The free fatty acids (FFA) in edible oils can be determined by thermometric titration. Since the exothermic reaction between the FFA and alcoholic TBAOH is too weak, a catalytically enhanced thermometric titration is used. The catalyst acts as an indicator for the endpoint. For the FFA titration, paraformaldehyde is used as a catalyst due to the endothermic hydrolysis of the paraformaldehyde in the presence of excess hydroxide ions. This results in a strongly exothermic endpoint, which can be detected reliably.