Evaluation of the Lipid Oxidation with Thiobarbituric Acid (TBA) Test in Butter

Feed, containing a high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids, are quite sensitive to lipid oxidation. The oxidation causes loss of the specific properties of feed such as colour, flavour, aroma, texture and nutritional value and further leads to the formation of toxic compounds. Oxidative reactions are formed as a result of a chain reaction of free radicals. This chain reaction occurs as photo-oxidative or autocatalysis mechanism of free radicals. Tendency to the lipid oxidation increases during the storage of butter under inappropriate conditions for a long time. Oxidative degradation level of butters, stored for a long time, is determined by Thiobarbituric Acid (TBA) test. This test is a simple, fast and commonly used method in order to determine the level of lipid oxidation. In this study, the levels of oxidative degradation of 50 different butter samples collected from markets in Bilecik were determined by using TBA test. TBA levels of samples were found to be 0.078-0.236 µgMA/g, while the average value was calculated to be 0.145±0.038 µgMA/g.