Comparison of the Fatty Acid Composition of Different Culinary Oils with High Saturated Coconut Oil Towards the Improvement of Public Health

Abstract

Consumption of excess amounts of trans fatty acids (TFA) causes health-related problems. Further, to limit the intake of saturated fatty acids (SFAs), the ratios between SFAs, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) are also introduced in addition to the ratio in between essential fatty acids (EFAs). Eight branded vegetable oils (virgin coconut, palm olein, sunflower, canola, olive, sesame, rice bran, and corn) and oil samples taken from fifth frying cycles of wade, fish, and chicken samples were analyzed for their fatty acid (FA) composition by Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). Among analyzed oils, the highest weight percentage of SFAs (90.69%) was found in virgin coconut oil. On the contrary, other analyzed oils primarily contained unsaturated fatty acids (USFA). The results indicated that the Oleic acid content of palm, canola, olive, and rice bran was 43.79%, 60.79%, 74.8%, and 43.0% respectively. Linoleic acid was the primary FA found in sunflower, sesame, and corn oils and the contents were 61.35%,41.23%, and 53.26% respectively, whereas linolenic acid was the primary FA found in canola (9.01%) with palm, sunflower, corn, rice bran, and sesame oils contained the levels of 0.18%, 0.16%, 0.66%, 1.12%, and 0.35% respectively. Results further illustrated that reheating the oils led to an increase in its TFA levels. However, the lowest TFA was obtained from the reused coconut oils (0.02%) whereas the highest TFA content was observed in reused sesame oils with the range of 2.56%-2.60% exceeding the maximum healthy content of TFA, recommended by the WHO. Hence, blending coconut oil with canola, sunflower, corn, or rice bran oils as a single oil or a mixture holds promising results in producing healthy oils to improve public health.