Bulletin of the IDF N° 407/2006: Determination of Water Content of Butter Oil By Karl Fischer Titration

Publication description

Water content of butter oil has hitherto been determined using an international standard method (ISO 5536 | IDF 23:2002) for the Karl Fischer titration using chloroform (trichloromethane) as additional solvent to methanol in the working medium. However, it has been shown that 1-octanol can replace toxic chloroform. The results of an international interlaboratory test of this method are described, showing that the new method using 1-octanol is equivalent to, or even better than, that using chloroform in terms of accuracy and precision of the results and the use of chemicals and titrators from different manufacturers has no significant influence on the results.