Potential use of electron spin resonance spectroscopy for evaluating the oxidative status of potato flakes

During storage for up to 52 weeks, under mildly accelerated conditions (22 °C, atmospheric air), potato flakes (1% lipid, dried to aw=0.4) were found to undergo oxidative changes as indicated by a slight decrease in headspace oxygen. The headspace concentration of hydrocarbons (ethane and pentane) steadily increased during storage, and the increase was reduced with added antioxidants. For a product without added antioxidants, three short-chain aldehydes increased slightly, but other secondary oxidation products did not change significantly (including thiobarbituric acid reactive substances). Long chain aldehydes (identified by GC–MS) were abundant in fresh products, but decreased during storage. The level of free radicals, as a marker of early events in oxidation and measured directly by electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), increased significantly during the first 2 weeks of storage, followed by a marked decrease for the period of 2–22 weeks of storage to reach a steady state level. Throughout the period of storage, ESR spectrometry was able to rank products protected by natural antioxidant extracts according to increasing level of free radicals: Unprotected>Coffee>Green tea, Grape skin>Rosemary. Hydrocarbons evolved according to a similar pattern and it can be concluded that ESR spectrometry provides a method for detecting early stages of oxidation in this type of low fat dried products.