Why some frying oils are safer than others
Toxic aldehyde generation in and food uptake from culinary oils during frying practices: peroxidative resistance of a monounsaturate-rich algae oil
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When you fry food, some oils break down into harmful chemicals. This study found that an oil made from algae with mostly monounsaturated fat makes way fewer of these bad chemicals than regular vegetable oils like sunflower oil.
Surprising Findings
Fast food chips contain measurable, harmful aldehydes—even though they’re not smoked or burnt.
People assume toxins only come from charring or overheating, but this study shows even perfectly fried chips absorb toxins from PUFA-rich oils at normal cooking temps.
Practical Takeaways
Switch to MRAFO (Thrive™) or other high-MUFA oils (like high-oleic sunflower or safflower) for frying at home—especially if you reuse oil.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When you fry food, some oils break down into harmful chemicals. This study found that an oil made from algae with mostly monounsaturated fat makes way fewer of these bad chemicals than regular vegetable oils like sunflower oil.
Surprising Findings
Fast food chips contain measurable, harmful aldehydes—even though they’re not smoked or burnt.
People assume toxins only come from charring or overheating, but this study shows even perfectly fried chips absorb toxins from PUFA-rich oils at normal cooking temps.
Practical Takeaways
Switch to MRAFO (Thrive™) or other high-MUFA oils (like high-oleic sunflower or safflower) for frying at home—especially if you reuse oil.
Publication
Journal
Scientific Reports
Year
2019
Authors
Sarah Moumtaz, B. Percival, Devki Parmar, Kerry L. Grootveld, Pim Jansson, M. Grootveld
Related Content
Claims (6)
When you cook with certain plant oils like sunflower or soybean oil, even at normal cooking temps that aren’t hot enough to make them smoke, they can break down into harmful chemicals — and if you heat them for 30 minutes straight, those harmful chemicals become ten times more toxic.
When you fry potato chips over and over in sunflower oil at a medium heat, harmful chemicals build up in the chips — but if you use a special oil called MRAFO, those chemicals barely form at all, even after frying many times.
MRAFO oil doesn't break down and create harmful fumes as quickly as sunflower oil when you fry food, because it's made mostly of a type of fat that's more stable under heat.
When heated to frying temperature, a special algae oil with mostly healthy fats gives off way fewer harmful chemicals than regular cooking oils like sunflower or corn oil—like only about 1 in 10 as much after 20 minutes.
Potato chips from fast food restaurants have harmful chemicals called aldehydes in them, and the more healthy unsaturated fats (PUFAs) the frying oil had, the more of these chemicals are found—no matter how much other fat (MUFA) was in the oil.