Apparent and quantitative loss of fatty acids and triacylglycerols at frying temperatures

Olive and sunflower oils were heated at 180 °C for 5, 10 and 15 hours with the aim of defining the changes in the contents of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and triacylglycerols (TAG) under frying conditions. Differences between apparent and real loss of FAME or TAG are defined for an adequate interpretation of the changes taking place at high temperature. Such differences depend on the expression of the results and frequently result in erroneous conclusions. Results showed that from the normalized composition it could be deduced that only the most unsaturated FAME (C18:2) or TAG containing it was significantly altered. However, quantitative data indicated that all the unsaturated FAME were degraded in samples of olive oil and sunflower oil whose levels of alteration ranged from 14.6 to 35.4% polar compounds. With regard to TAG, their loss depended on both the number of double bonds and the concentration of the linoleyl group, which is the most unsaturated fatty acyl group in both oils.