Measuring Oxidation of Cooking oil using EPR Spin Trapping

The staling of vegetable oil is a major problem in several food related industries. Rancidity is caused by a free radical process that is both oxygen and temperature dependent. The result is the degradation of long chain free fatty acids to the smaller aldehydes, ketones and alcohols that give rancid foods their characteristic foul odor and flavor. Efforts to decrease the rate of rancidity formation and methods to measure rancidity are of great importance to the food industry