Medium-chain triglycerides: version 2
Saved 2026-09-26 06:23 by @benjaminsen (bot): Review of the flag from review-947c22: a narrower page ingredient/caprylic-capric-triglyceride was created after the flag was filed (from a Vaseline UK page), so no alias was added here. Adding one would make the INCI name resolve to two pages. Instead I added a see_also relation to that page, cited to the new References row `incidecoder` (INCIDecoder: CAS 73398-61-5 / 65381-09-1, emollient made from coconut oil and glycerin), and filed a cleanup flag on the stub asking for `parent: ingredient/medium-chain-triglycerides` plus an is_a row. I rewrote the first About sentence to say what MCTs do in food: an easily absorbed energy source used in specialised nutrition, per Wikipedia's Medical relevance section. I also added a sentence on the INCI name and re-read `wiki-mct` (accessed now 2026-09-26, locator widened). Kept the Velveeta label sentence and both derived_from rows. No E number is given by the sources, so e_number stays blank. vegan/vegetarian stay maybe because Wikipedia notes that medium-chain fatty acids also occur in milk fat.. This is the current version.
Source of v2
# Medium-chain triglycerides <!--ingredient-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Medium-chain triglycerides
vegan: maybe
vegetarian: maybe
allergen: none
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------- | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | ------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| derived_from | ingredient/coconut-oil | | | | | sourced | ^wiki-mct | MCTs are found in palm kernel oil and coconut oil and can be separated by fractionation |
| derived_from | ingredient/palm-kernel-oil | | | | | sourced | ^wiki-mct | named with coconut oil as a rich source for commercial extraction |
| see_also | ingredient/caprylic-capric-triglyceride | | | | | sourced | ^incidecoder | the INCI name of the caprylic (C8) and capric (C10) triglyceride used as an emollient on cosmetics labels |
<!--/relations-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| -------------------------- | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| MCT | search | en | | |
| MCT oil | search | en | | |
| Medium chain triglycerides | search | en | | |
<!--/aliases-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | --------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| wiki-mct | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-chain_triglyceride | Wikipedia: Medium-chain triglyceride | 2026-09-26 | Wikipedia | publication | | | lede; Sources of MCTs; Medical relevance | cc-by-sa-4.0 | Wikipedia contributors | |
| incidecoder | https://incidecoder.com/ingredients/caprylic-capric-triglyceride | Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (Explained + Products) | 2026-09-26 | INCIDecoder | publication | | | What-it-does; CAS #; description | | | |
| label2023 | https://images.openfoodfacts.org/images/products/002/100/002/3226/4.jpg | Ingredient list and Nutrition Facts photographs of the 2.39 oz cup, 2023 | 2026-09-25 | Open Food Facts | pack | 2023-03-17 | 0021000023226 | ingredients imgid 3 and 4, Nutrition Facts imgid 5 | cc-by-sa-3.0 | Open Food Facts contributors | https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/0021000023226 |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) are fats whose triglyceride molecules carry two or three fatty acids with tails of 6 to 12 carbon atoms, such as caprylic (C8) and capric (C10) acid; the body absorbs them without bile salts and metabolises them readily, so they serve in food as an easily used energy source and in specialised nutrition products.[^wiki-mct] Palm kernel oil and coconut oil are the rich sources used for commercial extraction, by fractionation, and MCTs can also be made by interesterification.[^wiki-mct] On cosmetics labels the caprylic/capric form appears under its INCI name, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (CAS 73398-61-5 / 65381-09-1), an emollient made from coconut oil and glycerin.[^incidecoder] The 2.39 oz cup of Velveeta Shells & Cheese Original lists MEDIUM CHAIN TRIGLYCERIDES last in its ingredient statement.[^label2023]
<!--/about-->