PUTRAJAYA, Aug 26 (Bernama) -- Palm oil and palm olein with their proventechno-economic advantages are excellent and versatile frying media foralmost all frying activities, a recent study found.

The findings were made from studies carried out on frying activities infast food restaurants, industrial frying of pre-fried frozen french fries,commercial manufacturing of potato chips, mass catering, hawking andgeneral household frying purposes.

Three studies were done on frying using palm oil products, said RazaliIsmail of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board in his paper presented at theInternational Palm Oil Congress (PIPOC) 2003, here on Tuesday.

He said the first study was on industrial frying of potato chips usingpalm olein where excellent frying performance of palm oil was achievedwhile the freshness of oil was largely intact. The high quality fryingperformance was also largely due to the superior to proper oil managementand strict maintenance of machineries.

The second experiment was industrial frying of pre-fried frozen frenchfries using palm oil. The results of frying french fries, along with thesensory evaluations showed that the pre-fried frozen french fries as wellas the palm oil were of good qualities and the subsequent fryingperformance excellent. The used oil here again indicated a higher level offreshness and suited for repeat use.

The third study was batch frying of fried chicken using palm oil, palmolein and palm shortening where they were done simultaneously andintermittently under laboratory conditions, similar to a fast foodoperation.

The conclusion, supported by members of the sensory panel, was that allsensory attributes like colour, smell, crispiness dan taste of the friedchicken were good and acceptable, he said.

"The gist of the finding was that the frying performance of the three palmoil products was very satisfactory," he said.

He added that after five consecutive days of frying, the palm oil usedcould still be re-used for frying chicken.

-- BERNAMA