A novel strategy for discriminating marine oils by using the positional distribution (sn-1, sn-2, sn-3) of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in triacylglycerols.

A novel strategy for discriminating genuine and adulterated marine oils is proposed. The strategy consists of i) determining the stereospecific distribution (sn-1, sn-2 and sn-3) of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFA) on the backbone of triacylglycerols by using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry; ii) transforming the qualitative stereospecific information into quantitative data by means of a novel strategy; iii) analyzing the transformed data by principal component analysis. The proposed strategy was tested on pure oils (seal, salmon, cod liver, sandeel, blue whiting, herring), a mixture of blue whiting, herring, sandeel and Norway pout and some intentionally adulterated oils. In addition, some published krill oil data were analyzed to confirm the reliability of the new approach.