Status of the bioactive phytoceuticals during deep-fat frying of snack food using nutra-coconut oil.

The present study was carried out to study the physico-chemical changes that take place in both product and oil during the deep fat frying of a traditional savoury snack 'kodubale', at 120-160 °C for 120-600 s using coconut oil (CO) and nutra-coconut oil (NCO). Further, kinetic studies on moisture loss, oil uptake, color and degradation of β-carotene, total polyphenol content and antioxidant activity for kodubale was carried out during frying as a function of temperature and time. The study showed that the kinetic coefficients for above parameters increased with temperature and time and the data obtained were well fitted with first order kinetic model. The results also revealed that NCO fried product retained major phenolic acids due to the presence of antioxidants in the NCO which was enriched with flaxseed oil concentrate. The fatty acids profile of oil extracted from products obtained by frying using NCO was characterized with higher ω-3 and ω-6 fatty acids content as compared to same obtained using CO. However, the breaking strength and sensory characteristics of CO and NCO fried kodubale was found to have no significant difference (p < 0.05).