Chemical and organoleptic properties of oxidized fats

Various commercial fats were oxidized at elevated temperatures, and the extent of off-flavor development was evaluated organoleptically. Objective test methods also were applied to these oxidized fats, and correlations were established between the data and flavor panel results. Good to excellent correlations were obtained with pentane values, oxygen absorption values, peroxide values, and the average flavor scores. Results with the benzidine and thiobarbituric acid spectrophotometric methods were unsatisfactory. The octanoic acid method was found to be too insensitive to be of value. An exception to the above observations was lard, in which case all of the objective test methods gave good correlations with the flavor panel data. Presented at the AOCS Meeting, New Orleans, April 1973.