BULETINUL INSTITUTULUI POLITEHNIC DIN IAŞI Publicat de Universitatea Tehnică „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iaşi Volumul 68 (72), Numărul 2, 2022 Secţia CHIMIE şi INGINERIE CHIMICĂ EVALUATION OF THE FAT CONTENT OF SPREADABLE FOODS BY PAULA SIMIONESCU ∗ , ANAMARIA POROHNIUC, ANIŞOARA AIONESEI, VALENTIN PANAIT and GABRIELA LISA “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iaşi, “Cristofor Simionescu” Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection, Iaşi, Romania Received: March 9, 2022 Accepted for publication: April 20, 2022 Abstract. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to identify the types of fats in spreadable food. Three types of commercial margarine and three types of butter and a homemade product were analyzed. The presence of vegetable oils in two of the types of butter analyzed was identified. In one of the samples of margarine analyzed, the presence of saturated fats was highlighted, although according to the producer, it would contain only unsaturated vegetable fats. It has been shown that the DSC technique can be used to identify adulteration of butter or margarine and this method has the advantage of requiring a very small amount of samples, very good reproducibility and a short time for analysis. Keywords: DSC, margarine, butter, adulteration of spreadable foods. 1. Introduction Margarine and butter are spreadable foods that go into the daily diet of most consumers. It is very important for consumers to know information about the quality of the products purchased, respectively the fat content and their type. Differential scanning calorimetry is a technique that can be used to identify the ∗ Corresponding author; e-mail: paula.simionescu@student.tuiasi.ro