Oil Deterioration
Overheating or over-using the frying oil leads to formation of rancid-tasting products of oxidation, polymerization, and other deleterious, unintended or even toxic compounds such as acrylamide (from starchy foods). Deep-frying under vacuum helps to significantly reduce acrylamide formation, but this process is not widely used in the food industry due to the high investment cost involved.
Some useful tests and indicators of excessive oil deterioration are the following:
- Sensory: Darkening, smoke, foaming, thickening, rancid taste and unpleasant smell when heating.
- Laboratory: Acidity, anisidine value, viscosity, total polar compounds, polymeric triglycerides.
Instruments that indicate total polar compounds, currently the best single gauge of how deep-fried an object is, are available with sufficient accuracy for restaurant and industry use.
Read more about this topic: Deep Frying
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