The FryTest.com zero trans fat cooking oil contest

RESULTS OF TESTING OF CONAGRA WESSON SMART CHOICE COTTONSEED CANOLA BLEND

There are five categories of results.

CATEGORY ONE
FAT PERCENTAGES IN FRESH OIL

Gas chromatography using the approved American Oil Chemists' Society method was used to measure the trans fat, saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat percentages in the fresh unused oils. Note that the percentages consist of identifiable fatty acids only.

The trans fat and other fat percentages affect health of course, but also compliance with any existing and future labeling laws and regulations.

CATEGORY ONE RESULTS

Trans fat	0.55% ± 0.04*
Saturated fat	17.10% ± 0.40
Monounsaturated fat	26.80% ± 0.50
Polyunsaturated fat	38.75% ± 0.52

* THIS OIL IS ZERO GRAMS OF TRANS FAT PER SERVING AS DEFINED BY THE FDA. The FDA definition of zero grams of trans fat per serving is less than 0.5 grams per serving. A serving size is 14 grams. The 0.55% of trans fat in this oil constitutes about 0.077 grams of trans fat per serving. (The calculation is 0.55% of 14 grams.) This is far below the FDA threshold of 0.5 grams per serving.

COMMENTS ON CATEGORY ONE
RESULTS BY CONAGRA

The cottonseed/canola blend of oil is naturally 0 g trans fat per serving.

Moderate levels of saturated fat allow for longer fry life due to high stability of these saturated fats.

Cottonseed/canola blend is a good source of Omega-3 (ALA) fatty acids.

Cottonseed oil is one of the highest in natural Linoleic fatty acid – critical for producing desired deep fried flavor.

CATEGORY TWO
FRY LIFE BASED ON TOTAL POLAR
MATERIAL PERCENTAGES

Each oil was used to fry French fries 300 times. We wanted to know which ones stood up best to heavy duty frying.

Total Polar Materials (TPM) is the best indicator of fry life and more reliable and comprehensive than free fatty acids. The TPM percentage rises as the oil is used. Therefore, the lower the TPM score the better. If and when an oil reaches 24% TPM, its fry life has ended and it must be discarded.

The method used to test for TPM was Column Chromatography approved method AOCS Cd 20-91.

CATEGORY TWO RESULT

END OF FRY LIFE = 24%

Total Polar Materials % after 300 fryings over 13 frying days	17.5%

COMMENTS ON CATEGORY TWO
RESULT BY CONAGRA

An extremely robust frying oil, with outstanding fry life from a naturally trans fat free blend.

A heavy duty oil, like the cottonseed/canola blend, will maintain its quality through multiple cooking cycles, require less frequent changing, and ultimately lead to lower annual oil costs.

CATEGORY THREE
FRY LIFE BASED ON TESTING
BY TRAINED PANEL

An oil should be discarded before it reaches 24% TPM if it develops off-flavors or off-odors or loses its good texture or appearance.

The trained panel met each day beginning on the sixth frying day to determine whether any of the oils developed off-flavors or off-odors or lost good texture or appearance.

The testing was "blind" in that the panelists were not told which were the fresh oils and which were the used oils so that there was no risk of "suggesting" any findings to the panelists. If they would have known which were the fresh oils and which were the used oils, this might have suggested to them that they should find some kind of degradation in the used oil, even if there was in fact none.

CATEGORY THREE RESULTS

The official finding of Texas A&M University regarding the fry life of the 10 oils cooked in French fries across days 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 based on trained panel evaluation is that the oils did not change in sensory attributes except for light color.

It is apparent that sensory differences were minimal between the oils and that very minor changes occurred during repeated heating and usage of the oils. If oil deterioration was occurring, cardboardy odor and flavor would expectantly increase. With further deterioration, fishy and painty odors and flavors would begin to increase as cardboardy decreased or was replaced by fishy and painty odors and flavor. In highly oxidized oils, painty odor and flavor would be predominant. These changes did not occur in this study indicating that these 10 oils maintained quality during repeated frying for 13 days and that differences in French fries cooked in these 10 oils were not practically impacted in flavor, taste, texture or appearance.

COMMENTS ON CATEGORY THREE
RESULTS BY CONAGRA

None received.

CATEGORY FOUR
FOOD TO OIL RATIO

The oil in the fryers and all makeup oil added to the fryers were weighed regularly. The uncooked weights of the French fries placed in the fryers were determined. A calculation was performed to determine how many pounds of fries were cooked per pound of oil. The higher the number, the more fries were produced per pound of oil.

CATEGORY FOUR RESULTS

LBS OF FRENCH FRIES COOKED PER LB OF OIL

Start of Day 5	Start of Day 7	Start of Day 9	Start of Day 11	Start of Day 13
14.09	13.67	13.77	13.92	14.30

COMMENTS ON CATEGORY FOUR
RESULTS BY CONAGRA

No increase in the oil intake in the fried food, even after 300 deep fry applications.

Low absorption means the flavor of the food comes through, not the oil.

Finished fried product will have lowest possible fat intake allowing for lowest possible calories from the oil.

CATEGORY FIVE
CONSUMER EVALUATIONS

On the second day of frying, 49 or 50 consumers were asked to evaluate the cooked French fries based on appearance, color, crispiness, greasiness, flavor, and overall liking.

All testing was blind in that the consumers did not know what oils were used to cook the fries. Samples were "rotated" to avoid procedural bias.

A major brand of partially hydrogenated soybean oil was used as a control.

CATEGORY FIVE RESULTS

1 = DISLIKE EXTREMELY
8 = LIKE EXTREMELY

PHO = Major brand of partially hydrogenated soybean oil

Attribute	PHO	ConAgra Wesson Smart Choice
Appearance Like/Dislike	6.0	5.9
Color Like/Dislike	6.0	5.7
Crispiness Like/Dislike	5.5	5.3
Greasiness Like/Dislike	5.0	4.8
Flavor Like/Dislike	5.1	5.4
Overall Like/Dislike	5.2	5.5

COMMENTS ON CATEGORY FIVE
RESULTS BY CONAGRA

None received.

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