Huiles végétales et friture

Vegetable oils are an excellent source of essential macronutrients, omega 6 (linoleic acid), omega 3 (alphalinolenic acid) and micronutrients (vitamin E, phytosterols). What happens to these oils during cooking (shallow frying, roasting and, above all, deep-fat frying) depends on the cooking conditions, and especially the temperature (deepfat frying oil reaches 150 to 200°C, or 175°C on average), the cooking time, the number of cycles and the type of food. Oxidation, hydrolysis, polymerization or cis/trans isomerization can occur in unsaturated fatty acids but, in a carefully-controlled frying process, producing fried products with a good quality of taste, the concentration of degradation products (which are generally expressed in terms of “total polar compounds”) is low and does not represent a health risk. The most commonly-used vegetable oils in domestic, foodservice and industrial frying operations include linoleic or oleic sunflower oil, palm oil (either in its natural state or fractionated into olein), and, to a lesser extent, rapeseed oil, olive oil and grapeseed oil. © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.