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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #95749
Title: AROMA PROFILES BY AROMASCAN AND OXIDATIVE STABILITY OF CORN OILS WITH ALTERED FATTY ACID CONTENT

Author
item SHEN, NUO
item Duvick, Susan
item Pollak, Linda
item WHITE, PAMELA - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: In the food industry, soybean oil is usually used for deep fat frying after hardening the oil, or hydrogenation. Hydrogenation leads to the formation of nonnatural oil building blocks, or trans fatty acids, which are believed to be harmful. Newly developed corn oils with altered natural fatty acid compositions might be used as stable deep fat frying oils without hydrogenation, thus providing no-trans oils. This project was designed to test whether the stability of corn oil can be improved by altering fatty acid contents and whether the AromaScan (an electronic instrument which acts as a nose) can be used to monitor the stability of oils. Corn oils were analyzed and the data showed that corn oils with altered natural fatty acid contents had better stability than traditional corn oil. AromaScan provided a useful tool to detect odors formed during storage. The results of this project are important to the oil industry in that the corn oil with haltered fatty acid content might provide a useful alternative deep-fat frying oil and to be healthy to consumers. The use of AromaScan might partially replace the human sensory panels that taste oil samples and make more uniform products for the consumers.

Technical Abstract: This project was designed to test whether the oxidative stability of corn oil can be improved by the increase of total saturated fatty acid content and whether the AromaScan, an "electronic nose," could be used to detect odors/aromas produced by oxidation. Corn oils with normal (13.1%) and elevated (14.7 to 17.1%) total saturated fatty acid percentages were evaluated for their oxidative quality. Corn oils from five genotypes of corns were extracted by a laboratory-scale system and were refined, bleached, and deodorized in the laboratory. Two replications, separated at the point of extraction, were evaluated for each genotype. The refined, bleached, and deodorized corn oils (18.0 g) in 50-mL beakers were stored in an oven at 60 deg. C in the dark, and peroxide values were measured every other day for eight days. Corn oils with elevated total saturated fatty acid percentage were more stable (P < 0.05) than traditional corn oil. Aroma intensity of the oils was measured with an AromaScan at days 0, 4, and 8. The AromaScan provided a useful tool to detect odors/aromas produced by oxidation during an oxidative stability study; this tool might be used to partly replace human sensory panel evaluation of oxidized samples.