QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF OIL BLENDS BY ELECTRONIC NOSE TECHNIQUE AND SENSORY METHODS.

Two oil blends comprising 70 parts of groundnut oil (GNO) or rice bran oil (RBO) and 30 parts of coconut oil (CNO) or palmolein (PO) blends were studied for odor quality changes during deep fat frying by sensory and electronic nose techniques. Poori, a common Indian product, was deep fat fried in the two blends; altogether 10 fryings were made for each blend. Sensory odor evaluation by the method of quantitative descriptive analysis showed that freshly prepared blends and the blends after first frying had the characteristic oily note. In GNO + CNO blend, these notes became subdued but the earthy odor increased on subsequent fryings. At the end of the 10th frying, the heated oil odor was significantly higher accompanied with marked increase in husk-like and branny notes in RBO + PO blends. This was supported by the aroma pattern obtained by the electronic nose which showed discrimination between initial and fried oil samples. The consumer acceptance study conducted among the target groups using the hedonic scale showed that “poori” (fried product) fried in GNO + CNO blend had higher acceptance because of familiarity and liking for characteristic oil odor and aroma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]