Quality of Recycled Cooking Oil used to Deep Fry Fish by Street Food Vendors in Kawempe Division, Kampala

Abstract

The demand for deep-fried fish by consumers in Uganda has increased tremendously over the years. Deep-fried fish processors often cut costs by recycling cooking oil with little or no regard for quality. This study evaluated the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of street vendors (n=62) of deep-fried fish in Kawempe division, Kampala with regard to the quality of recycled cooking oil. It also evaluated the quality of the recycled cooking oil (n=7) used to deep fry the street-vended fish. The recycled oil samples were analyzed for peroxide value (PV), acid value (AV), moisture (MC), iodine value (IV), thiobabirturic acid (TBA) and color intensity (CI). The vendors generally had good knowledge, attitudes and practices with mean scores of 62.3%, 68.9% and 85.2%, respectively. All the recycled oil did not meet quality specifications. The mean PV, TBA, AV, IV, MC and CI of the recycled oils were 30.18±18.13 mEq O2/Kg, 21.62±9.54 mg MDA/kg, 3.08±1.28 mg KOH/g, 10.39±2.82 g I2/g oil, 0.38%±0.53 g/100 ml, and 0.90±0.42 respectively. Therefore, despite the vendors having good KAP scores, the quality of their recycled cooking oils were unfit for human consumption.