Abstract: Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with quadropole mass spectrometry (GC×GC-qMS) was applied to the detection of 31 fatty acids in vegetable oils. The sets of columns, modulation period, scan range of quadropole mass spectrometer were optimized. The results demonstrated that the separation was achieved in 50 min with the column set of DB-1 (30 m×0.25 mm×0.25 μm) as the 1st column and DB-Wax (3.2 m×0.1 mm×0.1 μm) as the 2nd column. All fatty acids were accurately and sensitively determined while the modulation period was 3.5 s and the scan range of quadropole MS was m/z 40~350. Most of the fatty acids were identified by NIST library spectra search, the other fatty acid isomers were identified by single standard injection analysis. When applying this method to the real vegetable oil samples, not only the sensitivities were 100 times higher than those obtained with GC-qMS methods, but also some minor fatty acids were identified. This work suggested a new technical approach in analyzing fatty acid components in vegetable oils, which is meaningful to prohibit adulteration and ensuring the quality safety of edible vegetable oils.

Key words: fatty acids, vegetable oils, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-quadropole mass spectrometry (GC×GC-qMS)