Quality Evaluation of Blended Rice bran and Mustard oil

Rice bran oil (RBO) is nutritionally superior non-conventional vegetable oil and mustard oil (MO) is traditional oil widely used in domestic cooking in rural India. So, the present study was designed to develop a healthier and stable blend of RBO and MO. Therefore, RBO was blended with MO in two ratios i.e. 80:20 and 70:30. These blends were analyzed for fatty acid composition, physiochemical properties, oxidative stability, and antioxidant activity. Consequently, RBO+MO in the ratio of 80:20 contained 16.9 percent SFA, 32.9 percent MUFA and 50.8 percent PUFA whereas the percentage of SFA, MUFA and PUFA present in RBO+MO (70:30) was 15.2, 25.6 and 59.2 respectively. RBO+MO in the ratio of 70:30 showed adequate smoke point (188°C), frying temperature (180°C) and had low acid value (0.28 mg KOH/g) and saponification value (224.0 mg KOH/g) as well as a low percentage of free fatty acids (0.14%). In terms of oxidative stability and antioxidant activity, RBO+MO (70:30) showed least percent increase (33.9%) in peroxide formation after 28 days of incubation period and also had highest radical scavenging activity (57.5%) whereas the highest content of total natural antioxidants (2291.3 mg/kg) was present in RBO+MO (80:20). A significant (pd”0.05) difference was found in all the quality parameters of vegetable oils and it was concluded that RBO+MO in the ratio of 70:30 was an ideal blend in terms of overall quality parameters.