Performance of Palm Olein and Soybean Oil During the Frying of French Fries and Its Effect on the Characteristics of the Fried Product

Performance of soybean oil and palm olein during the deep-fat frying of 45 batches of frozen prefried french fries was studied. The peroxide index increased faster for the soybean oil, with a final value of 12 meq/kg. Free fatty acids increased with the number of fried batches and were higher in the palm olein. Total color change was more noticeable in soybean oil in comparison to the palm olein. Viscosity, total polar compounds, and p-anisidine values increased and were higher in soybean oil. A reduction of unsaturated fatty acids was observed from the chromatography analysis. Elaidic and linoelaidic acids, which are trans-fatty acids, had higher concentrations in degraded soybean oil. Palm olein was more stable than soybean oil under the conditions of this study and produced french fries with a lower oil content.