Effects of hydrogenation and additives on cooking oil performance of soybean oil

Soybean oil was continuously hydrogenated in a slurry system to investigate the effects of linolenate content and additives on cooking oil performance. Room odor evaluations carried out on oils heated to 190 C after frying bread cubes showed that the oils hydrogenated with Cu catalyst to 2.4% linolenate (Cu-2.4) and with Ni catalyst to 4.6 linolenate (Ni-4.6) had a significantly lower odor intensity score than the unhydrogenated soybean oil (SBO). Other hydrogenated oils (Cu-0.5 and Ni-2.7) were not significantly better than SBO. Oil hydrogenated with Ni (Ni-0.4) scored poorly because of its strong “hydrogenated-paraffin” odor. The performance of all partially hydrogenated oils (2.4, 2.7 and 4.6% linolenate) was improved by adding methyl silicone (MS), but the most hydrogenated oils (0.5 and 0.4% linolenate) were not improved. Although with tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) no improvement was obtained, with the combination of TBHQ + MS all odor scores were lower, indicating a synergistic effect. Evaluations of bread cubes after intermittent heating and frying showed that the breads fried in most hydrogenated oils (Ni-0.4, Cu-2.4 and Ni-2.7) were rated significantly better in flavor quality than breads fried in SBO. The bread cubes fried in MS-treated oils had significantly higher flavor quality scores than breads fried in SBO or SBO containing TBHQ. Dimer analyses by gel permeation chromatography and color development after heat treatments also did not correlate with sensory analyses.