The Effects of Microwave Frying on Physicochemical Properties of Frying and Sunflower Oils

Deep fat frying is a method of food preparation which has been popular for quite a number of years. During deep frying, the quality of oil and the finished product decreases as the result of heat treatment of the oil exposed to air at high temperature. Application of heat by microwave as an alternative to the conventional method of frying has become popular in recent years. In this research, the effects of microwave frying on the changes in the quality indices of used oil have been investigated. To achieve this, potato slices were fried in both frying and sunflower oils by application of medium power microwave (550 W) for 20 min, three times a day, for five consecutive days, and oils were sampled for analysis. The results obtained from the chemical tests demonstrated that used frying oil had lower polar compounds, a higher induction period, and more saturated fatty acids than sunflower oil. The interesting point observed was that peroxides formed as the result of oxidation chain reactions were not broken down and were built up due to the lower temperature and shorter period of frying. Therefore microwave frying might be considered as a suitable alternative to the conventional frying due to less degradation of the oil and consequently a lower production of artifacts.