Comparison between synthetic and rosemary-based antioxidants for the deep frying of French fries in refined soybean oils evaluated by chemical and non-destructive rapid methods

Using natural antioxidants instead of synthetics ones has been the tendency for retarding the oil deterioration during repeated deep frying process. Concerning this, the comparison between synthetic tertiarybutyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) and rosemary-based antioxidants in frying French fries was hereby evaluated. The quality and stability of frying oils with rosemary-based antioxidants showed higher efficiency than TBHQ regarding oxidation parameters (i.e., chemical indices, sensory, etc.), where rosmarinic acid (RA) was the most effective, followed by rosemary extracts (RE) and carnosic acid (CA). LF-NMR results were highly correlated (R² = 0.909-0.998) to the change in physicochemical properties tested, where RA could effectively regulate the relaxation spectrum (T₂) change and decrease single component relaxation time (T_2W). The PCA graph of NIRS also revealed the dynamic change of antioxidant effectiveness in accordance with that obtained by chemical methods. Hence, both LF-NMR and NIRS can be expected as rapid and efficient methods for future monitoring the frying process.

Keywords: Antioxidant effects; Frying oil quality; Near infrared spectrometry (NIRS); Physicochemical property; Principle component analysis (PCA); Relaxation characteristics.