Each type of cooking oil makes a unique set of chemicals when heated, and scientists can tell them apart just by looking at what chemicals are made — because their fats are different.

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Comparison of Furans Formation and Volatile Aldehydes Profiles of Four Different Vegetable Oils During Thermal Oxidation.

Cross-Sectional Study

In Vitro

2019 Jul

Different cooking oils have different fats, and when heated, they make different smelly chemicals—like how butter smells different from olive oil when fried. This study showed that scientists can tell which oil was used just by smelling the chemicals it makes when heated, because the fats in each oil create unique smells.

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Source Study

Comparison of Furans Formation and Volatile Aldehydes Profiles of Four Different Vegetable Oils During Thermal Oxidation.

Score: 4

DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.14659

Similar Assertions

The kind of fat in an oil—like how much linolenic, linoleic, or oleic acid it has—decides what chemicals are made when you heat it up, and how much of them.

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Oils with polyunsaturated fatty acid content exceeding 10% are susceptible to thermal oxidation during cooking, generating harmful aldehydes and polar compounds even below smoke point.

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Oils with polyunsaturated fatty acid content exceeding 10% are susceptible to thermal oxidation during cooking, generating cytotoxic aldehydes and lipid peroxides.

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