Sunflower oil blends with rosemary oleoresin and their shelf life
What it found
In lab tests, sunflower oil mixed with rosemary oleoresin at 1500 mg/kg lasted longer before going off than plain sunflower oil.
The blend performed similarly to oil with a common preservative.
What they found
Shelf life at 20 °C
The estimated shelf life at 20 °C was 3790 hours for plain sunflower oil, 6974 hours for oil with the preservative, and 4179 hours for the oil with rosemary oleoresin at 1500 mg/kg.
Best rosemary blend
The blend with 1500 mg/kg of rosemary oleoresin gave the highest oxidative stability to sunflower oil among the rosemary blends tested.
Similar to preservative
The rosemary blend at 1200 and 1500 mg/kg grouped closely with the oil containing the preservative, meaning their stability was comparable.
Temperature effect
The breakdown of the oils followed a temperature-dependent pattern that matched a standard equation, with activation energies between 92.07 and 100.50 kJ/mol.
Classifying blends
Statistical methods separated the rosemary blends, the preservative blend, and the plain oil into distinct groups, and clustered the oils into 3 groups based on stability.
What the authors conclude
“The multivariate kinetic approach effectively screened SORB1500 as the best blend conferring the highest oxidative stability to sunflower oil.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say the multivariate kinetic approach effectively screened the rosemary blend at 1500 mg/kg as the best blend for giving sunflower oil the highest oxidative stability.
- They suggest this approach can be adopted for quick and reliable estimation of the oxidative stability of oil samples.
How it was done
Scientists mixed sunflower oil with rosemary oleoresin at 9 concentrations from 200 to 2000 mg/kg, with a preservative called tertiary butyl hydroquinone at 200 mg/kg, and left one batch plain. They heated the oils in a Rancimat machine at 100 to 130 °C with air flowing at 20 L/h and measured how long they took to start breaking down.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This study was done in a lab with heated oil and airflow, not with people eating the oil.
- It does not show what happens to sunflower oil inside the body or during normal cooking and storage at home.
The paper
- Title
- Classification of Sunflower Oil Blends Stabilized by Oleoresin Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) Using Multivariate Kinetic Approach
- Type
- Study
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Upadhyay R, Mishra HN (2015). Classification of Sunflower Oil Blends Stabilized by Oleoresin Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) Using Multivariate Kinetic Approach. Journal of food science. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.12966PubMed 26148221DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error