LC-MS-based glyceride profiling of cold-pressed fruit seed oils for effective authenticity testing

Cold-pressed fruit seed oils from blackcurrant, raspberry, and strawberry have gained popularity as functional foods due to their unique nutritional properties. This study employed a comprehensive approach combining lipidomics and chemometrics to characterize the glycerides profiles of these oils using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The lipidomic analysis identified 215 glycerides in the three oils. Chemometric analysis revealed that TAG profiles were superior to DAG profiles for oil differentiation and detecting adulteration. OPLS-DA identified 28 TAGs as significant markers for distinguishing the three oils. Comparison of glyceride profiles of pure and adulterated samples demonstrated that adulteration with 5 % or more sunflower or rapeseed oil could be detected. Targeted metabolomic analysis using specific markers for sunflower oil confirmed adulteration in raspberry and strawberry commercially purchased fruit seed oils. The study highlights the importance of employing various analytical methods to ensure the quality and authenticity of high-value fruit seed oils.