Abstract:
In daily life most oils and fats in local markets are exposed to environmental conditions such as storage on shelves, exposure to UV radiation and day light. The present study deals with the influence of these environmental conditions for a duration period of one year on some physicochemical properties of a number of edible oils used in daily life. These oils include olive oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, palm oil and cotton oils. The results revealed that significant changes occurred in some biophysical and biochemical properties of these oils mainly in flash point, viscosity, specific gravity, iodine number, peroxide value, acid value, and saponification value. The exposure to daylight was more effective rather than the other two environmental conditions. These changes resulted in variation in the oils structure and the formation of new fatty acids fragments which were confirmed using GC-MS and NMR techniques.