Evaluation of palm oil quality: Correlating sensory with chemical analyses

Plam oils of various qualities were used in this study. Chemical analyses included determination of free fatty acids, peroxide value andp‐anisidine value. Sensory evaluations included scoring and descriptive tests. Fresh, crude palm oil of high quality with a maximum score showed a zero peroxide value, a zerop‐anisidine value and a free fatty acid level of 0.2%. It had a strong, pleasant, sweet caramel‐like flavor. The levels of free fatty acids were higher in samples that had been stored for a long time. Theirp‐anisidine values were also higher compared to fresh oils. Flavor intensity of red palm oil did not necessarily indicate quality. Its quality was dependent on the type of flavor, pleasant or otherwise. For refined, bleached and deodorized oil, there was an inverse relationship between flavor intensity and quality with a correlation coefficient of r=−0.87. There was some correlation between overall quality rating by sensory method and quality evaluation by chemical analyses, such as free fatty acids (r=−0.69), peroxide value (r=−0.57) andp‐anisidine value (r=−0.49).