Industrial production of crisps and prefried french fries using sunflower oils

Crisps and prefried french fries were prepared during industrial operations in order to study the possibility of using sunflower oils («normal» and high oleic) instead of palm olein and mixtures of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and palm oil in industrial frying. The quality of the food items was evaluated by determining the total amount of polar components, the amount of the different components in the polar fraction (dimers, oxidized triglycerides, diglycerides), the quantity of cyclic fatty acid monomers (CFAM), as well as the 18:2 geometrical fatty acid isomers. For both the production of crisps and french fries, very small increase in the polar components was observed. Frying of crisps did not result in any changes in the fatty acid composition and in the amount of 18:2 geometrical isomers. However the amount of CFAM increased in samples fried in SO. An increase of CFAM was observed also for french fries independently of the nature of the frying medium. No modifications of the cis and trans isomer distributions were observed for the french fries prepared in the mixture of palm oil and partially hydrogenated canola. These results show that sunflower oils could be used for the industrial production of french fries and crisps. However, storage studies are being carried out in order to determine if both types of sunflower oils give products which are as stable as those prepared in a solid frying medium