Effect of Storage Packaging on Sunflower Oil Oxidative Stability

The sunflower is one of the four most important oilseed crops in the world and the nutritional quality of its edible oil ranks among the best vegetable oils in cultivation. Two samples of sunflower oil were evaluated for physicochemical properties to compare between different types of storage in order to minimize oil deterioration and prolong its shelf-life. One of which is sunflower variety PAN7411 that was recently grown in Gezira Agricultural Research Corporation to be tested for yield productivity. The second sample was commercial oil purchased from the local market. Both seeds of the variety, as a whole and its extracted oil was stored and compared. Commercial oil samples were stored in containers of different materials and colors. Stored seeds and oils were periodically sampled and tested for oil oxidative stability namely: color, refractive index, viscosity, refractive index, viscosity, acid value, peroxide value and iodine value. Results demonstrate that the immediately extracted oil after plant harvesting is more resistant to deterioration than the oil kept stored inside the seed, for the variety under the study. Glass container seemed to be more resistant to deterioration factors than polythene while galvanized container was found to be the worst. Brown container revealed more resistance to oxidative stability followed by colorless container and the black container was the worst. Peroxide value of commercial oil samples revealed high measurements even at 0.0 time oil storage.