Regardless of adults or kids, most people like to eat deep-fried foods, e.g., French fries, fried chicken wings and Taiwanese fried chickens. Do these deep-fried foods impact on our health adversely?

Deep-frying is mainly putting the food into a pot of boiling edible oil. A lot of water evaporates from the food that makes it turn golden-brown and crispy. When the cooking oil is used repeatedly over a long time, it produces large amounts of free radicals and polymers which harm our liver and digestive organs.

In general, the same pot of cooking oil should not be reused for deep-frying foods several times. When we buy the fired food, how can we judge whether the food is prepared by the used cooking oil repeatedly? It is recommended that residents can observe the condition of frying oil. If the oil is used continually, it has a darker colour and sticky sensation, or appears a lot of foam, or even releases rancid odour or unpleasant smell. The status of cooking oil is mentioned as above. It indicates that the oil quality is very poor. We should not buy these deep-fried foods.

Selection of Edible Oil

It is very important to choose the right edible oil for deep frying; since, the cooking temperature of oil is about 140℃ during deep-frying process. The maximum oil temperature can be up to approximately 200℃. Frying at high temperature, unsaturated fatty acids are less stable, easily oxidized and deteriorated. Comparing with saturated fatty acids, it is more stable. Owing to this fact, palm oil, canola oil and coconut oil are good choices for deep-frying; since, they contain high level of saturated fatty acids.

Most edible oil selling on the market has been refined. This stabilizes the quality of oil during storage. Besides, unrefined edible oil is only suitable for cold dishes, such as unrefined sunflower oil, unrefined linseed oil and so on. Other kinds of edible oil are suitable for different cooking methods, like steaming, frying and boiling. While purchasing the edible oil, residents can read the food label, and choose the suitable one for fitting their cooking purpose. 

Storage of Edible Oil

Edible oil is prone to deteriorate because of the oxidation, direct sunlight and high temperature; thus, manufacturers add antioxidants into the oil to maintain its quality within the shelf-life. The common antioxidants are tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and so on.

In order to prevent the deterioration of edible oil during storage, we should pay attention to:

• Seal and protect from light
• Put away from stove or other heat sources
• Buy a small bottle of edible oil preferably to avoid food waste. A large quantity may deteriorate faster than the small one before completely consumption. 

003/DIR/DSA/2018