Mondo Knows Facts
High temperatures degrade cooking oils past their smoke point
Overheating fats breaks triglycerides down into free fatty acids and acrolein smoke
The smoke point of a cooking oil is the temperature at which it begins to decompose and produce visible bluish smoke. Heating oil past this threshold breaks triglycerides down into glycerol and free fatty acids. Glycerol further decomposes into acrolein, an irritating volatile gas that imparts an acrid flavour to food.
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Tags: cooking oil, smoke point, fats
High temperatures degrade cooking oils past their smoke point: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Overheating fats breaks triglycerides down into free fatty acids and acrolein smoke. The figure is taken from US Department of Agriculture, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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