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A Short History In the early days of the edible oil processing industry, in the first half of the 19th century, there was little or no need for refining. Food fats (e.g. lard, olive oil, milk fat, etc.) were mostly consumed unrefined and their typical flavour was even an attractive characteristic. It was the growth … Continue reading
Bleaching Bleaching was introduced in edible oil refining at the end of the 19th century to improve the colour of cottonseed oil. Originally, it was a batch process at atmospheric pressure, in which natural bleaching clay was added to hot oil with the sole objective of removing colouring pigments. Today this is no longer the … Continue reading
Physical refining was utilized as early as 1930 as a process for the preneutralization of products with a high initial FFA content. In this case, preneutralization was followed by caustic refining. Later, it was found possible to physically refine lauric oils and tallow if the proper pretreatment was applied before steam distillation. Physical refining became … Continue reading
Chemical refining is the traditional method used in past centuries. The main purpose of chemical refining is to saponify the FFA by an alkaline solution and dilute the resulting soaps in a water phase. These soaps are removed by separators. The neutral oils are subsequently bleached and deodorised. This chemical refining can be used for … Continue reading
Crude oil contains desirable and undesirable compounds. Desirable compounds include triacylglycerides (TAGs) (neutral lipids) and health beneficial compounds such as tocopherols and phytosterols. Undesirable compounds or impurities consist of non-triacylglycerol components such as free fatty acids (FFA), partial acylglycerols, phosphatides, metallic compounds, pigments, oxidation products, pesticides, glycolipids, hydrocarbons, sterols, waxes, etc. Impurities can negatively influence … Continue reading
Oil Palm Knowledge Base 