Super high oleic acid safflower oil: A new frying oil

Abstract: Interest in high oleic oils – canola, pea, sunflower, and soybean, with superior heat stability, application performance and nutrition has increased over the last two decades. Recently, a super high oleic safflower (SuHi-Saff) oil with an oleic value >90% has been developed through gene technology for the oleochemical industry. In 2018, the Food Standards Australia New Zealand approved SuHi-Saff for human food use. High oleic oils are commonly used in frying applications; hence, this study benchmarked the SuHi-Saff oil against two common frying oils – conventional canola and high oleic sunflower oils. The oleic acid contents were 91% for safflower, 80% for sunflower and 62% for canola. The pre-frying induction times were 8.8±0.53, 15.3±0.88 and 35.1±0.46, whiles total tocopherol content was 749 mg/kg, 584 mg/kg and 320 mg/kg for the canola, sunflower, and safflower oils, respectively. Alpha-tocopherol was the main tocopherol ( < 15 mg/kg gamma) in the high oleic oils.

We used oils to fry potato chips for 30 hours, and frying life was evaluated by the total polar material content using a Testo 270 oil sensor. After 90 cycles, SuHi-Saff oil had comparable frying life to high oleic sunflower – ~22 hours compared to ~27.5 hours for canola (see figure). The safflower oil tocopherols were depleted after 6 hours of frying (22 hours for canola), which, coupled with the significantly low gamma-tocopherol (~9 mg/kg), may explain the shorter frying life compared to canola. Compared to canola oil, both high oleic oils' frying life was determined by the higher oleic content and not their tocopherol content. When the tocopherol effect is removed, the SuHi-Saff oil might demonstrate comparable or better frying stability to the canola oil. The data presented is the first to benchmark this innovative oil in a frying application and indicate its direct value and potential as a food processing ingredient.