Qualitative Assessment of Cooking Oils Used by Street Food Vendors of Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: Street foods have gained popularity around the world in the past few decades. The current study was carried out in order to quantitative analysis of used cooking oils by Street Food Vendors (SFVs) of Lahore, Pakistan.
 Methods: Fifty samples of cooking oil used by SFVs were collected. Also, a questionnaire was designed for qualitative assessment that revealed maximum vendors used vegetable ghee because of its low cost and practiced addition of new oil into the used one instead of disposing it. The samples were also quantified for their Moisture Content (MC), Free Fatty Acid (FFA), Peroxide Value (PV), Iodine Value (IV), and Total Polar Compounds (TPC). Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 21.
 Results: The survey data indicated poor knowledge regarding the safety and health aspects of cooking oils among SFVs. Moreover, mean values indicated that most of the samples were unhealthy as they exhibited higher MC (>0.10%), TPC (>25%), PV (>10 meq. O2/kg), and FFA (>0.20 mg KOH/g); and very low IV (<80 g/100g) in samples.
 Conclusion: The analysis revealed that the SFVs of Lahore, Pakistan used low-quality cooking oil. The quantitative assessment of cooking oils showed high values of moisture, FFAs, polar contents, and PVs.

Quality Assessment of Fried Oils from Different Street Food Vendors and Restaurants in Different Areas of Gilgit, Pakistan

“…A recent study conducted in Lahore, Pakistan also reported the quality of fifty frying oil samples being used by SFVs. The results of the study reported that most of the frying oil samples were unhealthy and exhibited higher moisture content (> 0.10 %), total polar content (> 25 %), peroxide value (>10 meq.O2/kg), and free fatty acid (> 0.20 mg KOH/g); and very low IV (< 80 g/100 g) [17]. Another similar study conducted in Faisalabad, Pakistan also reported that fifty oil samples were collected and most of them were found oxidized and degraded [18].…”