Comparative appraisal of ghee and common vegetable oils for spectral characteristics in FT-MIR reflectance spectroscopy.

FT-MIR spectra of ghee (anhydrous milk fat) and common vegetable oils were acquired using HATR in 4000-650 cm-1 region. The differences in absorbance by carbon-hydrogen (C-H) stretch in fatty acid chain at 3.48 μm and absorbance by carbonyl (C-O) stretch of ester linkage at 5.7 μm in ghee and that in vegetable oils were studied. The clear differences in the spectra of ghee and that of the vegetable oils were noticed in fingerprint region, which can be very well utilized to develop FT-MIR spectroscopy as a promising tool to detect presence of common vegetable oils mixed in the ghee as an adulterant.