A modified version of a previously published extraction technique using acetone as the extracting medium and separation on an HPLC equipped with a Spherisorb C18 ODS2 column packed with 3 μm particles along with a suitable flow rate and mobile phase significantly improves the resolution of the chromatographic output (fluorescence detector), allowing for accurate measurement of α-, δ- and γ(+ β)-tocopherols. It was found that two extractions of the same sample yielded approximately 97% of the total extractable α-tocopherol. Vitamin C was not needed as an anti-oxidant to protect α-tocopherol during extraction from chicken liver but was needed when using fish liver, α-tocopherol was found not to be evenly distributed in beef, chicken or fish liver. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.