Quality assessment of commercially refined sunflower oil found in the market of Pokhara, Nepal

Abstract

Sunflower oil is widely used for home cooking and the food industry. Food safety concerns are always there while consuming oil daily, so people want their purchased and consumed oil to be safe. The main aim of the research is to demonstrate and compare the data of different parameters obtained from laboratory experiments following the standard methods suggested by FSSAI-2016 (Food Safety and Standard Authority of India), A.O.A.C. (Association of Analytical Chemists) and the standard values given by D.F.T.Q.C. (Department of Food Technology and Quality Control), Nepal in 2075 B.S for edibleness of sunflower oil. Here, we show the standard methods to test the different parameters, i.e., moisture content, acid value, density, peroxide value, iodine value, saponification value, and unsaponifiable matter of edible sunflower oil. The dataset of preliminary and physiochemical analysis were within the limits of D.F.T.Q.C. standards for edible and refined sunflower oil, where moisture content was 0.05±0.01, refractive index was 1.4676±5.7735E-05, peroxide value was 2.65±0.098, acid value was 0.071±0.0026, iodine value was 128.02±0.007, saponification value was 189.92±1.094 and unsaponifiable matter was 2.53±0.7. This study concludes that all the selected samples of sunflower oils are in the permissible range according to the D.F.T.Q.C. directory (2075). It indicated that selected sunflower oil types have regulatory standards for public consumption concerning health risks under study from the Pokhara market.

Keywords

• Sunflower oil
• Oil analysis
• Parameter
• D.F.T.Q.C
• A.O.A.C
• F.S.S.A.I.