Abstract:

A method was developed for the determination of free fatty acids (FFAs) in goat milk by gas chromatography (GC)
without derivatization. The process includes three parts: the extraction of goat milk lipids, the separation of FFAs and the
determination by gas chromatography. Firstly, the milk lipids were extracted with ethanol/ether/n-heptane, and then FFAs
were isolated on an aminopropyl column. Finally, the FFAs were identified and determined by gas chromatography. The
external standard method was applied to determine the recoveries of FFAs in the goat milk, which acted as the calibration
coefficients of FFAs. The results showed that the recoveries of long chain FFAs were higher than those of short chain FFAs,
especially for C2︰0 and C4︰0 with values of 23.9% and 78.5%, respectively. The recoveries were stable with relative standard
deviations blew 0.04%.

Key words: goat milk, gas chromatography, solid phase extraction, free fatty acids