Strategies to Document Adulteration of Food Supplement Based on Sea Buckthorn Oil: a Case Study

In this case study, a food supplement with declared content of sea buckthorn oil was investigated since it was suspected to be adulterated by sunflower oil. Polar and non-polar fractions extracted from oil supplement were analyzed and compared with authentic sea buckthorn and sunflower oils examined in the same way. Three different analytical platforms were used in order to characterize these samples: (i) ambient mass spectrometry consisting of direct analysis in real time (DART) ion source coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF MS); (ii) ultra performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and (iii) high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). The fingerprints of polar and non-polar extracts, regardless they were obtained by DART-HRMS and/or UHPLC-HRMS, were almost identical with those of sunflower “reference” oil. The last of employed techniques, HPLC-DAD, provided complementary information on the occurrence of various visible light-absorbing compounds. While a rich carotenoid profile was shown in sea buckthorn oil, dominated by β-carotene, lutein, and lycopene, the color of the suspected sample was caused only by high concentration of β-carotene. In principle, these techniques proved to be suitable and complementary tools for oil authentication and allowed an oil supplement to be rapidly verified.