Assessment of Quality Parameters in Edible Vegetable Oils

Objectives: Edible oils, derived from a plant source, play a vital role in providing nutrition. A quality edible oil has a flavor, range of physicochemical parameters. Several quality parameters like saponification value, acid value, peroxidase value and iodine value will be helpful in estimating the quality of edible vegetable oils. The present study was intended to evaluate the quality difference between cooked and uncooked oils. Materials and Methods: Utilizing various edible oil samples from major brands in india e.g sunflower oil, soybean oil, canola oil, almond oil, coconut oil and, olive oil saponification value and acid value was determined. All the oil samples were thoroughly characterized by calculating their saponification value and acid value using the standard procedure of association of official analytical chemist (AOCS) and American oil chemist society. Results: In comparision to uncooked oils, cooked oils had significantly higher sapnification values. The acid values were also increased in cooked oils compared to uncooked oils. Widely used sunflower oil had a two fold significant increase in saponification value and five fold significant increase in acid value after cooking. Similar changes were not observed in olive oil. Conclusion: Taken together, results of our study indicate that widely used sunflower oil might not be appropraiate for domestic usage. Further, our results also indicate that olive oil might be a better choice for domestic cooking. Further studies are required for a large scale validation of the present results there by brining in regulation/public health policy on usage of cooked oils by various small scale food vendors.