Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #62887
Title: EFFECT OF FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF OILS ON FLAVOR OF FRIED FOODS

Author
item Warner, Kathleen
item Orr, Paul
item GLYNN, MARTIN - NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/21/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Current efforts to modify vegetable oils by selective breeding of oilseeds has resulted in lowering of the compounds in the oil most susceptible to deterioration during storage and high temperature use, linoleic and linolenic acids. While the resulting oils are more stable, there is concern that lowering the linoleic acid component may have a negative effect on the flavor quality of foods fried in the modified oil. Oils prepared by blending, to contain a broad range of linoleic acid content, were used to fry potato chips and french fried potatoes. Results of taste panel evaluations of these products indicated that the intensity of fried food flavor decreased with decreasing levels of linoleic acid in the oil. These results are important to plant breeders to guide efforts to produce oilseeds with modified oils and to frying oil formulators to produce oils with optimum levels of linoleic acid content to achieve a balance between the flavor quality and the stability of oils and fried foods.

Technical Abstract: The effect of fatty acid composition of frying oils on the fried food flavor characteristics of potato chips and french fried potatoes was determined. Commercially processed cottonseed oil and high oleic sunflower oil were blended to produce oils with contents of linoleic acid from 9 to 54% and of oleic acid from 20 to 80%. Potato chips were prepared under pilot plant conditions with oils used for 18 hours each. Potato chips and oils were sampled periodically for sensory, gas chromatographic volatile, and chemical analyses. French fried potatoes were cooked in 14 L fryers. Foods were evaluated for flavor characteristics by a trained, experienced, analytical sensory panel. Initially, both potato chips and french fried potatoes, prepared in a cottonseed oil with 16% oleic/55% linoleic acid, had the highest intensities for fried food flavor; however, this positive flavor characteristic decreased with decreasing levels of linoleic acid in the blends. Potato chips analyzed for 2,4-decadienal, by static headspace gas chromatography, showed increasing amounts of this compound as the percent of linoleic acid increased in the oils. Analyses of the frying oils showed that the percent of total polar compound levels decreased with decreasing amounts of oleic acid.