Volatile profile and sensory evaluation of cold-pressed edible oils

Vegetable oils are divided in two types. The first one belongs to the oils in terms of energy storage in plants as fatty acids bond in triglycerides, typical for oils derived from different plant seeds. The second one belongs to essential oils which are produced as self-defense or attractant compounds. Most of essential oils are used in flavour industries such as food, beverage, traditional medicine and perfumery because of their terpenic nature. Virgin sunflower oil seems to be link between those two types of oil. The sunflower seeds contain fixed oil as the major oil which is mixture of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids mainly bonded as triglycerides and minor quantity of terpenic oil with predominant fraction of monoterpene hydrocarbons. Volatile profile and sensory evaluation of 16 cold pressed sunflower oils were object of this study. Low abundance of monosaturated oleic acid and very high abundance of polyunsaturated linoleic fatty acid (presented in abundance more than 60%) can cause faster oxidation in comparison to high oleic sunflower oils which can induce unpleasant ‘rancid’, ‘sour’ or ‘bitter’ taste. The quantity of α-pinene can be used as also marker for the process of cold-pressing of sunflower oil. This monoterpene hydrocarbon is very volatile and extremely low level of α-pinene as well as significant lower concentration of all other monoterpenes can lead us to conclusion that the quality of the seeds is very poor or incorrect pretreatment of the seeds was applied.