Effect of soybean breakage on the quality of soybean oil: Preliminary study

Soybean samples were separated into 4 fractions (whole beans, halves, pieces, and fines) according to physical damage, and all fractions but the fines were analyzed for oil quality. Free fatty acids were found to increase from 0.65% for whole beans to 1.79% for halves, 3.04% for pieces, and 9.46% for fines (by differences). Neutral oil loss of hexane-extracted oil from these fractions was 4.5% for whole beans, 4.62% for halves, and 6.08% for pieces. The results give a measure of the decrease in quality of soybean oil with increasing soybean breakage.