Correlations between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polar components in edible oils during deep frying of peanuts

Peanuts were deep-fried for 192 h in soybean oil and two blends (super palm olein oil/soybean oil/high oleic sunflower oil, at volume ratios of 2:2:1 and 3:2:1). For each type of oil, changes in the total polar components (TPCs), the polar component composition (polymerized products, oxidized products and hydrolysis products), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the correlations between them were investigated. These parameters were found to increase as the deep-frying time increased; the increase was fastest for soybean oil. In this study, the TPCs content showed higher correlations with polymerized products and oxidized products than with hydrolysis products. In addition, the Pearson correlation coefficients between PAHs and polymerized products and between PAHs and oxidized products were higher (ranging, 0.766 to 0.917), which proved that the changes in PAHs concentrations are related to oxidative stability of oils. These results may be helpful in studying the mechanism of PAHs accumulation and in developing ways to reduce PAHs contents during frying processes.