Physical refining of oils & Fats is a method that is used for edible oil refining. The free fatty acids are removed during a process called distillation. Refining of oil is done to remove the unwanted minor components such as taste, color, the odor that make oil unwanted to customers. Physical refining of oils & Fats is done to improve the odor, flavor, color, and stability.
Following are the steps involved in the refining process
1. Degumming
Degumming is to remove phospholipids from the crude oil. The degumming process system removes hydratable and non-hydratable gums from all types of fats and oils.
2. Neutralization
Through effective removal of free fatty acids in crude oil the taste enhances, gets stable, and adds shelf life to your edible oils. It boosts operational reliability and efficiency with minimal operating costs. For soft oil like soybean, many refining experts choose neutralization of soybean oil.
3. Bleaching
This step involves removing pigments and other impurities from crude fats to ensure the appearance, quality, and stability of the oil.
4. Dewaxing
Dewaxing is a process where removing wax from oil improves edible oil transparency at a low temperature. It enables effective packing of the oil into complete transparent bottles.
5. Deodorization
The deodorization process uses lower temperatures and, less steam to deacidify edible oils, stripping the unwanted odor, color, flavor safely and securely. If one is deodorizing palm, soybean, or any other edible oil this process is the most important as it reduces the unwanted volatiles as well as the formation of GEs and Trans fatty acids.
During the deodorization process, the free fatty acids in the oil are removed using multi-stage stripping and, it possesses the following characteristics-
● It can be used with specific crude oils like palm oil but not fish oil
● Depends on efficient degumming before refining
● Provide a better environmental profile
Physical refining of oils & Fats has several advantages like improved yield, less waste or environmental loss, less investment cost, and use of fewer chemicals.
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