Abstract
The components of fresh vegetable oils are mainly non-polar. During frying of food, complex and multistage reactions occur in the oil, which produce various polar compounds. Active carbons are characterized by small contents of polar functional groups, which are responsible for adsorbing such polar compounds. Effective purification of the used frying oils must involve the removal of the polar substances. To improve the quality of the used palm oil, an active carbon oxidized by a hydrogen peroxide treatment was used. Such a carbonaceous adsorbent improves the quality of the oil used for frying food by purifying it from colour substances, lipid hydrolysis products, oxidation products and total polar compounds.