Frying Stability of Sunflower Oil and Palmolein Oil

Deep-fat frying at high temperature under normal pressure is one of the oldest, simplest and fastest method of preparing dishes in Indian culinary practice. Fried foods have desirable flavour, colour and crispy texture which make them very popular to the consumers. The most common fried snack products include potato chips, banana chips, vadas, samosas etc. The frying process is also applied to meat and fish. This work was intended to evaluate the quality attributes of two common edible vegetable oils Viz. , sunflower oil and palmolein oil during the frying process. The frying was applied to sliced potatoes. The samples were subjected to frying for eight minutes. The product is removed, oil is cooled and a portion is taken for analysis. The process is repeated with remaining portion of oil and a total of six times the frying is conducted. The process is conducted separately with each oil. The physio-chemical properties such as refractive index, specific gravity, acid value, saponification value, iodine value, peroxide value and total polar compounds were analysed before and after frying process. All these parameters have significant changes during the frying process. A comparison of these physio-chemical properties between sunflower oil and palmolein oil is also made.