The increased use of dairy fat in various applications is facilitated by its fractionation into hard and liquid fractions. Herein, the fractionation of bovine ghee and buffalo ghee was investigated, and triacylglycerol (TAG) profiles of milk fat fractions and 2 categories of infant formulas fat were quantified by using ultra-performance convergence chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPC2-Q-TOF-MS) using carbon dioxide as the mobile phase. Furthermore, the thermal behavior of the different samples was evaluated, and tocopherols content was also quantified. A total of 176, 188, and 84 TAG species were identified in bovine ghee fractions, buffalo ghee fractions, and infant formulas fat, respectively. The results showed significant differences in TAG profile, lipid quality indices, and tocopherols content between the different fat types. Stearin fractions had higher levels of saturated TAG, while olein fractions had significantly lower levels. These results could provide interesting insights into the field of human milk fat substitutes.
Keywords: Ghee; Melting and crystallization; Tocopherol; Triacylglycerol; UPLC-MS.
© 2025, The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).