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Title: OPTIMIZING THE FRYING QUALITY, FLAVOR, AND STABILITY OF SUNFLOWER OIL

Author
item Warner, Kathleen

Submitted to: Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/3/2002
Publication Date: 4/3/2002
Citation: WARNER, K.A. OPTIMIZING THE FRYING QUALITY, FLAVOR, AND STABILITY OF SUNFLOWER OIL. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN OIL CHEMISTS' SOCIETY. 2002.

Interpretive Summary: Commodity vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower, corn and canola need additional processing and chemical additives to be suitable for the 8 billion pound/per year frying oil industry. Plant breeders can now easily change the compositions of oils to provide improved quality oils for consumers. However, the breeders need information on what parts of the composition to change and how much to change the compositions. In this study on the flavor of potato chips fried in five sunflower oils with low to high amounts of oleic acid, we showed that the intensity of fried food flavor decreased with increasing levels of oleic acid in the oils. Potato chips fried in sunflower oils with 60% or 67% oleic acid had the best flavor. Based on this research, we recommend that breeders limit the amount of oleic acid in sunflower oil to 67%. Results of this research will guide both plant breeders and users of vegetable frying oils in the production of oils with optimum fatty acid composition to achieve a balanc between flavor quality and oxidative stability of oils and fried foods.

Technical Abstract: To determine levels of oleic acid in sunflower oil that inhibit deterioration during frying, sunflower oils modified by traditional breeding methods to increase the oleic acid levels to 60-75% were evaluated for frying performance and oxidative stability in comparison with commodity sunflower oil with 18% oleic acid. Flavor characteristics of both the oils sand tortilla chips prepared in the commercially processed sunflower oils were evaluated by sensory panelists. In comparison to tortilla chips prepared in commodity sunflower oil, the samples fried in mid-oleic sunflower oil with 60% oleic acid had significantly greater flavor stability after accelerated aging at 4 days, 60 deg C. The degree of difference in stability between the chips from the oil with 18% oleic acid and the one with 60% oleic acid increased with time. These results corresponded directly with the differences in total polar compound levels between the oils. Commodity sunflower oil had higher levels of polar compounds than did mid-oleic or high oleic oils. Commodity sunflower oil had good initial quality but oxidized significantly more than sunflower oil with 60% or 75% oleic acid. The level of total polar compounds decreased with increasing oleic acid content; however, the levels for mid-oleic (60%) and high oleic (81%) oils were 14% and 11% respectively after 20 hours of frying. On the other hand, the flavor of the tortilla chips fried in the oil with 60% oleic/33% linoleic acid was significantly better than the flavor of the samples fried in the sunflower oil with 75% or 81% oleic because the latter samples had low intensity levels of deep fried flavor.