~ 196 ~  The Pharma Innovation Journal 2017; 6(10): 196-199 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating 2017: 5.03 TPI 2017; 6(10): 196-199 © 2017 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 14-08-2017 Accepted: 15-09-2017 Kakali Bandyopadhyay Associate Professor, Department of Food Technology, Gurunanak Institute of Technology, 157/F, Nilgunj Road, Panihati, Sodepur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Chaitali Chakraborty Associate Professor, Department of Dairy Chemistry, Faculty of Dairy Technology, WBUAFS, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India Suravi Chakraborty Final Year B. Tech Student, Department of Food Technology, Gurunanak Institute of Technology, 157/F, Nilgunj Road, Panihati, Sodepur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Shairee Ganguly Assistant Professor, Department of Food Technology, Gurunanak Institute of Technology, 157/F, Nilgunj Road, Panihati, Sodepur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Correspondence Kakali Bandyopadhyay Associate Professor, Department of Food Technology, Gurunanak Institute of Technology, 157/F, Nilgunj Road, Panihati, Sodepur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India Change in physicochemical properties of edible oil during frying: A review Kakali Bandyopadhyay, Chaitali Chakraborty, Suravi Chakraborty and Shairee Ganguly Abstract Edible oils from plant, animal, or synthetic origin, are used in frying, baking, and other forms of cooking, and in salad dressings and bread dips. Plant-derived edible oils consist of carboxylic acids with long hydrocarbon chains, in contrast to petroleum-based oils which lack the carboxyl group on the end. The carboxyl group makes the oils edible, providing a site for human enzymes to attack and break down the chain in a process called beta-oxidation. There are a wide variety of cooking oils from plant sources such as olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil (rapeseed oil), corn oil, peanut oil and other vegetable oils, as well as animal-based oils like butter and lard. This paper incorporates a comparative study of different types of frying oils by their physicochemical properties and compositional qualities. There are numerous health benefits of frying oils which has been covered in the paper along with the future of edible oils in India. Keywords: Edible oils, carboxyl group, physicochemical properties, health benefits. 1. Introduction Lipids and triacylglycerol naturally occur in oils and fats. Their chemical composition contains saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and glycerides. Edible oils are vital constituents of our daily diet, which provide energy, essential fatty acids and serve as a carrier of fat soluble vitamins (Erum Zahir et al., 2014) [26] . Cooking oil is typically a liquid at room temperature, although some oils that contain saturated fat, such as coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil are solid. Fat frying is one of the oldest and popular food preparations. Fried foods have desirable flavour, colour and crispy texture, which make deep-fat fried foods very popular to consumers. Frying is a process of immersing food in hot oil with a contact among oil, air, and food at a high temperature of 150 to 190 o C. The simultaneous heat and mass transfer of oil, food and air during fat frying produces the desirable and unique quality of fried foods. Frying oil acts as a heat transfer medium and contributes to the texture and flavour of fried food (Hassan A. Mudawi et al., 2014) [15] . Numerous types of edible oils of plant and animal origin are used in frying, depending on regional availability. Palm oil is often used in Southeast Asia, coconut and groundnut oil in the Indian subcontinent, and olive oil in the Mediterranean region. During the last five decades, the Western food industry has become increasingly dependent on the frying process to manufacture a variety of snack foods. Fried foods such as potato chips, french fries, and fried fish and chicken have gained worldwide popularity (Farkas B.E. et al., 1996) [10] . According to Erum Zahir, the quality of Corn and Mustard oils was analyzed by evaluating physicochemical properties such as density, viscosity, boiling point, peroxide, iodine and saponification values. Results are presented in Table 1. Oils with lower values of viscosity and density are highly appreciable to consumers. In order to design an advanced technological process these properties are very important parameters. From the results obtained as presented in Table 1 the saponification value of palm kernel oil (280.5±56.1 mg KOH/g) is higher than those obtained for coconut oil (257.5±6.5 mg KOH/g) and groundnut oil (191.5±3.5 mg KOH/g) and since the higher the saponification value, the higher the unsaturated level of the oil, it can thus be inferred that palm kernel oil possess more unsaturated fatty acids than groundnut and coconut oils. It also indicates that the molecular weight of palm kernel oil is less than those of groundnut and coconut oils (Theodore, 1983) [23] . The iodine value obtained for palm kernel oil (i.e., 15.86±4.02 mgKOH/g) is also higher