The purpose of this study was to obtain information about fatty acid composition in human milk and compare it with infant milk formulas using high-resolution gas chromatography. In 24-h samples of mature hindmilk of 12 Slovak women, who delivered at term, 48 different fatty acids were separated and quantified. The fatty acid composition of human milk was as follows: saturated 39.90 %; cis-monounsaturated 38.35 %; trans-monounsa- turated 3.73 %; polyunsaturated 18.02%.The polyunsaturated fatty acid fraction included 7 long-chain polyun- saturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) which represented 1.72 % (LC-PUFA; n6 contributed 1.21 %; LC-PUFA n3 0.51 %). The mean total trans fatty acid content was 4.28 ± 1.48 % of the total milk fatty acids and ranged from 2.41 to 8.28 %. The trans fatty acid isomer content of human milk was variable, reflecting the trans fatty acid content of the mother’s diet. Commercially available infant milk formulas in Slovakia were without LC-PUFA and contained only from 0.67 to 0.96 % of total fatty acids as trans fatty acid isomers.

        Key words: mature human milk, infant formulas, polyunsaturated fatty acids, n3 fatty acids, n6 fatty acids, trans fatty acids