Quality of Edible Vegetable Oils Accessed in Gondar City, Central Gondar zone, Northwest Ethiopia in 2019

Abstract

Abstract Background: Edible or cooking vegetable oil is fat of plant origin, which is used for the purpose of food related use. Edible vegetable oils are prone to quality deterioration through oxidation, hydrolytic and microbial degradation as a result of factors such as the quality of raw materials, and the processing technology types, poor storage and distribution. Moreover, vegetable oils rancidity due to oxidation may pose health risks including cancer and inflammation due to the release of oxidation products that are reactive and toxic. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the quality of edible vegetable oils both imported and locally made, and comparison between, consumed in Gondar City central northwest Ethiopia 2019. Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study design was conducted using 60 oil samples (30 samples for imported oils, and 30 samples for locally produced oils).Simple random sampling technique was used to collect samples from different oil brands in Gondar city marketing areas. The samples were transported to the lab and analyzed for selected oil quality parameters: acid value, peroxide value, specific gravity, iodine value and moisture content compared to the WHO/FAO joint standard. One way ANOVA and independent t-test was used to analyze the data obtained. Values for p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: the mean value and standard deviation for the studied parameters were found to be as for moisture content (%) (0.34±0.25 and 0.09±0.20), specific gravity (0.83±0.15 and 0.81±0.96), peroxide value (15.03±6.80 and 2.73±5.44 mill equivalents of active oxygen/kg), acid value (2.73 ± 1.65 and 0.99±0.50 mg KOH/g) and iodine value (114.87±39.32 and 19.49±11.18 g I2 /100 oil) for local and imported edible oils, respectively. Conclusions: The results showed that all quality parameters of both locally made and imported edible oil samples were not within the joint WHO/FAO standards which mean that all of these edible vegetable oils were not up to the oil quality standards. Compared to the imported oils, the locally made oils have shown a greater rancidity behavior. On the other hand, the imported oils have shown a greater degree of fatty saturation compared to the locally produced oils which means the locally made oil are more preferable for consumption. Keywords: edible vegetable oil; quality; local; imported