Deodorizer distillates are valuable by-products of edible oil refining and can have a wide range of characteristics. The value and uses clearly depend on their composition. A knowledge of their composition would allow refining processes, to be compared and the influence of deodorization conditions to be determined. In this paper, TLC/FID is applied to determine deodorizer composition in a rapid, single step analysis, separating hydrocarbons, free fatty acids, triglycerides and sterols. This analysis had similar reproducibility to other chromatographic techniques.