Degumming rice bran oil using phospholipase‐A1

The efficacy of enzymatic degumming was assessed using the third generation phospholipase‐A₁, Lecitase®‐Ultra (EC 3.1.1.3) from Thermomyces lanuginosa/Fusarium oxysporum with different qualities of crude rice bran oil. The phosphorus content in the oil reduced to ～10 mg/kg from an initial level of 390 mg/kg after 2 h of incubation period at 50°C. However, in the solvent‐phase degumming, there was practically no phospholipid reduction at lower water content (2%) due to the poor contact between the highly nonpolar solvent and the aqueous phase (citric acid, NaOH, and enzyme solutions). Increasing the water content to 20% reduced the phosphorus level in the degummed‐oil to 71 mg/kg but did not match the performance of oil‐phase degumming. The degumming efficiency of Lecitase®‐Ultra was effective in oil‐phase and suitable for practical application. Solvent‐phase enzymatic degumming offers more benefits but needs greater efforts to overcome the challenges.