The determination of frying oil quality using a chemosensory system

Chemosensory systems are currently being introduced in the food industries for quality control and process monitoring. This study was conducted to determine the possibility of using a chemosensory system to differentiate among varying intensities of oil rancidity and investigate discrimination between good, marginal and unacceptable frying oils. Fresh, 1-day, 2-day used and discarded frying oils were obtained from a fast food restaurant in each frying cycle for 4 weeks. The oil samples were analysed using a quartz-microbalance-based chemosensory system. The discrimination between good, marginal and unacceptable frying oils with regard to rancidity was examined and the results were compared to their physico-chemical properties such as dielectric constant, peroxide value, and free fatty acid content. The different qualities of frying oils were successfully evaluated and discriminated using the chemosensory system. Good correlations ( r from 0.87 to 0.96) were found between changes in physico-chemical properties of oil and the sensor signals.