Comparision of the frying performance of olive oil and palm superolein

Deep-fat frying is an important method of food preparation in wich foods are immersed in hot oil. Repeated use of frying oils is a common practice and in the presence of atmospheric oxygen it produces various undesiderable reactions in used oils. Stable frying oils usually required low linolenic acid (LnA < 3%). The aim of this study was to establish the behaviour of palm superolein (PSO) (OA 45%, LA 12.5%, LnA 0.2%) and olive oil (OO) during repeated, discontinous deep frying of French fries. The behaviour of the oils under controlled heating conditions was also studied by maintaining all of the process variables the same as those in deep frying except that there was no food in the oil. The PSO selected to be tested in this study may represent an alternative to OO as a frying medium. Although PSO presented a faster increase in some oxidation indices, such as free acid and total polar compounds, for other indicators, PSO showed better behaviour than OO (less formation of C8:0 and lower peroxide value).