Deep-fat frying is an important process used worldwide for the preparation of foods. Due to oxidation, hydrolysis, decomposition and oligomerization, numerous polar compounds are formed. These compounds change the physical, nutritional and sensory properties of the oil or fat. The standard methods of the German Society for Fat Science for the assessment of the quality of frying fats are time consuming and cost intensive. Therefore, alternative cost-effective and sensitive rapid methods, which ideally allow the quantitative determination of the quality of frying fats "in-line" in the deep-frying pan are needed. Sunflower oil and palm fat were thermally and oxidatively degraded in a beaker at atmospheric pressure under intensive stirring for 76 h at 175 °C. To evaluate the development of the physical properties during heat treatment, the viscosity and dielectric constant of these oils were measured. The temperature in a deep-frying pan can vary within a wide range (160-190 °C), and the viscosity and dielectric constant show a strong temperature dependence. Therefore, it was necessary to measure the temperature dependence of the viscosity and dielectric constant of the different degraded oils. Additionally, their chemical properties were characterized by high-performance gel permeation chromatography and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The determination of the dielectric constant, which is directly correlated with the concentration of polar compounds, seems to be the best method for the assessment of the quality of used frying oils.
Keywords: deep-fat frying; dielectric constant; palm fat; sunflower oil; viscosity.