`Adding Olive Oil Phenols to Seed Oils Reduces the Health Risks of Frying - Olive Oil Times
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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Adding Olive Oil Phenols to Seed Oils Reduces the Health Risks of Frying

By Julie Butler
Aug. 31, 2011 12:01 UTC
Summary Summary

Spanish researchers have patented a tech­nique to add olive oil phe­nols to seed oils, reduc­ing the for­ma­tion of harm­ful com­pounds when fry­ing. This break­through could lead to health­ier fry­ing prac­tices and oils with increased antiox­i­dant lev­els, poten­tially hit­ting the mar­ket within a year.

Spanish researchers have devel­oped a way of adding olive oil’s phe­no­lic com­pounds to oils made from seeds, such as sun­flower oil, so they form fewer toxic com­pounds when fried with.

Finanzas.com reported this week that the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research (IMIBIC) in Córdoba recently patented the tech­nique, which increases the level of antiox­i­dants present in seed oils thanks to the addi­tion of olive oil phe­nols. The lat­ter off­set the pro­duc­tion of harm­ful sub­stances gen­er­ated when seed oil is heated, and par­tic­u­larly when the same oil is recy­cled for fry­ing.

Lipid per­ox­ides — which increase the risk of ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis, can­cer and other chronic degen­er­a­tive dis­eases — are formed even when olive oil is heated, but the polyphe­nols pro­tect against this process.

Carlos González, head of tech­nol­ogy trans­fer at IMIBIC, said the break­through was impor­tant for health­ier fry­ing. He said the phe­no­lic com­pounds ham­pered the chem­i­cal reac­tions of hydrol­y­sis and oxi­da­tion. These reac­tions are a par­tic­u­lar risk in deep-fry­ing and not only a health risk but adversely affect the taste and nutri­tional value of food.

Studies have shown that the level of polar com­pounds in fry­ing oils – which increases as the oil dete­ri­o­rates – is a pre­dic­tor of high blood pres­sure and that there is a link between con­sump­tion of polar com­pounds and the build-up of fatty deposits on artery walls.

González said the next step was to find com­pa­nies inter­ested in com­mer­cial­iz­ing seed oils enhanced via the new process. At the ear­li­est, such oils might be on the mar­ket in a year or so, he said.

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