Designation of a Palm-Free Frying Oil Formulation Based on Sunflower, Canola, Corn and Sesame Oils Using D-Optimal Mixture Design

Oils used in frying should include special characteristics such as high oxidative stability, prolonged shelf life, low price, abundance and availability and desirable flavors. Nowadays, consumers are further interested in low saturated frying oils.  Recently, manufacturers focus on eliminating palm oil derivatives (as a major vegetable source of saturation) from frying oil formulations. Therefore, achievement of balances between nutritional, technological and economic aspects is a big challenge for the oil industries.

The aim of this study was to design and develop a palm-free frying oil formulation based on oils of sunflower (10–30%), canola (10–70%), corn (10–30%) and sesame (10–30%) using D-optimal mixture design. Linolenic acid (Ln) content, trans fatty acids (TFA), saturated fatty acids (SFA), oxidative stability index (OSI) and smoke point (SP) were considered as the response variables. To evaluate performances of these blends during deep frying processes (180 °C for 200 min), total polar compound (TPC) content, peroxide value (PV) and free fatty acid (FFA) content of the blends were assessed.

In summary, the total polar compound content, PV and FFA content of the blends included 15.87–19.41%, 16.41–20.58 meq O2/kg oil and 0.55–0.77%, respectively; fitted in published recommending ranges. All responses were fitted in the best way (R2 > 0.91) to the linear model used for optimization. The optimal formulation included canola (40.675%), sesame (26.015%), sunflower (23.310%) and corn (10.000%) oils and all experimental values of this formulation were in the confidence interval. This indicated the high accuracy of designation and optimization of the formulas.

In general, the present frying oil formulation can be considered a successful transparent and palm-free formulation in terms of economy, quality and technology considerations, particularly for household uses.