ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract.

Fried foods are highly appreciated and marketed in the world. Due to they absorb the oil in which they are cooked, the quality of frying oil is very important. Antioxidants are employed to maintain good quality during oil storage, and also, to avoid degradation during repeated frying. In this work, the performance during repeated frying of oil free of antioxidants or added with a blend of primary and secondary antioxidants was analyzed. The frying oil was a blend of hydrogenated canola oil with high-oleic sunflower oil. The antioxidants were added at concentration of 200 ppm (TBHQ as a primary antioxidant with 20% of citric acid as a secondary antioxidant). The performance was evaluated for two fried foods separately: French fries or chicken nuggets. A batch (80 g of frozen food) was fried for 3 min at 180ºC; 50 batches were fried daily during 4 days. At the beginning of every day, the used oil was filtered and the fryer was refilled with fresh oil. These conditions are similar to those practiced in restaurants and fast food establishments. According to the parameters of free fatty acids, peroxides, p-anisidin, total polar compounds, color and viscosity, no effects of the antioxidants were observed in the oil when employed for repeated frying of French fries (p>0.05). However, oil with antioxidants had higher performance than oil without antioxidants when it was employed for repeated frying of chicken nuggets (p>0.05). Thus, the type of food affected the oil performance. The oil was resistant by itself for repeated frying when employed for repeated frying of French fries, and the blend of antioxidants was not able to prevent the oil oxidation when used for repeated frying of chicken nuggets. Antioxidants, chicken nuggets, French fries, oil performance, repeated frying