Antioxidant effect of natural rosemary on the oxidation of mid-oleic sunflower frying oil on chicken wings

Abstract

Fried foods are hugely popular and very much a part of our modern cuisine. Guarding against oxidation is crucial, due to the absorption of oil during the frying process. This paper presents how, the degree of resistance of sunflower oil was evaluated during repeated fries of chicken wings by adding the natural antioxidant extracted from rosemary. It was compared to tocopherol and to a control sample. A preliminary test of accelerated aging demonstrated the effectiveness of rosemary extract by using the Rapidoxy technique on sunflower oil. This proved that the adequate dose of this antioxidant should be 600 ppm. Many physicochemical transformations were inflicted on the oil during its oxidation. The kinetics monitoring of this phenomenon was determined by measuring the total polar materials (TPM), free fatty acids (FFA), and the peroxide index (PI). The obtained results showed that all the parameters analysed tended to increase over time. However, the effect of the rosemary antioxidant was positive on the stability of the oil and the slowing down of its oxidation. Moreover, its efficiency was higher than tocopherol. Rosemary antioxidants could be a safer alternative to synthetic antioxidants which represent toxicological risks, such as buthylated hydroxyanisole BHA, buthylated hydroxytoluene BHT, and tert-butylhydroquinone TBHQ.