This document specifies a rapid method for the determination of the oil and water contents in oilseeds using pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

It is applicable to rapeseeds, linseeds and sunflower seeds with a water content less than 10 % and soya beans with a water content less than 14 %. For seeds with higher water contents, drying is necessary before the water and oil content can be determined by pulsed NMR.

NOTE 1        This method has been tested with rapeseeds, soya beans, linseeds and sunflower seeds. This does not, however, preclude its applicability to other commercial seeds whose oil is liquid at the temperature of measurement.

NOTE 2        The reproducibility values obtained are generally higher than those obtained by the reference methods (see ISO 659 and ISO 665) because they depend on the variability between the instruments and on that existing between the calibrations, which depends on the measurement accuracy of the reference methods.

NOTE 3        The results of the comparison test between different magnets and different volumes of seed samples (see Annex B) are in coherence with the results of the interlaboratory test (see Annex A).