Process Technology for the Production of Micronutrient Rich Red Palm Olein

Crude palm oil (CPO) is the richest natural source of carotenes that are destroyed in the conventional processing. There is a growing demand for nutritional products containing bioactive constituents externally fortified or preserved through modified process. A commercially viable process for the production of red palm olein (RPOn) rich in carotenes, tocols and sterols has been developed at pilot scale. The process developed involved neutralization of CPO followed by crystallization at controlled rate of cooling and deodorization of the resultant neutralized and winterized palm olein (WPOn) under controlled conditions of temperature and high vacuum. Analytical data related to micronutrients at each process step was monitored. The RPOn thus produced had not more than 0.25% of free fatty acids (FFA) and it retained more than 80% of the carotenes, about 85% of tocols and 65% of sterols originally present in the CPO. The physico-chemical characteristics of RPOn revealed that it is nutritionally of superior quality compared to that of the commercial refined bleached deodorized (RBD) palm olein currently available in the market. The carotenes, tocols and sterols profile of RPOn by HPLC showed that they were retained in their natural forms.     

Zero-<Emphasis Type="Italic">trans</Emphasis> shortening using palm stearin and rice bran oil

Several pilot-scale trials reported in this paper, using palm stearin-rice bran oil (PS-RBO) blends, obviously did not contain trans FA (TFA), whereas the commercial products were found to contain 18–27% TFA. The effects of processing conditions such as rate of agitation, crystallization temperature, and composition of the blends on the crystal structure of shortenings were studied. The products were evaluated for their physicochemical characteristics using DSC, X-ray diffraction (XRD), HPLC, and FTIR techniques. The formulation containing 50% PS and 50% RBO showed melting and cooling characteristics similar to those of hydrogenated commercial “vanaspati” samples. Analysis of the FA composition revealed that the formulated shortenings contained 15–19% C_18∶2 PUFA. Tocopherol and tocotrienol contents of the experimental shortenings were in the range of 850–1000 ppm with oryzanol content up to 0.6%. XRD studies demonstrated that the crystal form in the shortenings was predominantly the most stable β′ form, and there was less of the undesirable β form.     

Zero trans shortening using rice bran oil, palm oil and palm stearin through interesterification at pilot scale

Fat blends, formulated by mixing refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil (PO) or RBD palm stearin (PS) with RBD rice bran oil (RBO) in various ratios were subjected to chemical interesterification (CIE) at pilot scale using sodium methoxide (NaOMe) as catalyst. The resultant interesterified fat was processed through a margarine crystalliser under optimised conditions. The blends before and after CIE were investigated for triacylglycerol (TAG) composition, solid fat content (SFC) and melting characteristics, polymorphic form, fatty acid composition (FAC), bioactive (tocols, sterols, oryzanol) constituents and trans fatty acids (TFA). CIE was found to be very effective in terms of rearrangement of fatty acids (FAs) among TAGs and consequent changes in the physical characteristics. The SFC of the interesterified PS/RBO blends decreased significantly ( P  ≤ 0.05) when compared with those of PO/RBO blends. The interesterified binary blends with 50–60% PS and 40–50% RBO, and 70–80% PO and 20–30% RBO had SFC curves in the range of all-purpose type shortenings. CIE facilitated the formation of β' polymorphic forms. FAC of shortenings prepared using the optimised blends contained 15–20% C_18:2 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and no TFA. Total tocol, sterol and oryzanol content of zero trans shortenings were 650–1145, 408–17 583 and 1309–14 430 ppm. CIE using NaOMe did not affect the bioactive constituents significantly ( P  ≤ 0.05).