Vol. 10, Special Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Banu Priya R and Chandrasekar V

Abstract:
Deep frying is one of the popular food processing techniques in which repeated frying of the same oil can result in the deterioration of oil and reduces the quality of fried foods. Oil deterioration is the result of various chemical reactions such as oxidation, polymerization, isomerization and hydrolysis. These reactions are associated with the change in the volatile profile. The volatile profile of sunflower oil before and after frying was analysed using fast gas chromatography electronic nose. The results shows that there were significant changes in the volatile profile of sunflower oil after deep-frying. There was a total of 96 and 102 volatile compounds found in fresh and fried oil respectively. Some volatile compounds found in the fresh oil got degraded and not found in the fried oil. Whereas some volatile compounds underwent chemical reactions and resulted in products which were not found in the fresh oil. The volatile markers of the chemical reactions during deep-frying process can be used to find whether the oil is fresh or used. This proves that the electronic nose can be an alternative technique to find the volatile profiles of oils besides other conventional techniques such as head space solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography.