Processing of vegetable oils 2020 17-08-2020

Processing of vegetable oils 2020 17-08-2020

Producing good quality vegetable oil all starts with the seed, nut or fruit. An avocado is ripe when it falls off the tree. sesame seed is ripe when the sesame pod bursts. Starting with ripe fruits, seeds or nuts is the basis of making high quality vegetable oil. When vegetable oil is pressed under mild conditions (reaching 30-60 degrees Celsius) it is suitable as “spice” oil. Due to the low processing temperature the oil will keep its aromatic compounds and vitamins, resulting in “cold-pressed” oil.

Another process for oils is refining. Most oils and fats that are too raw for direct usage are refined first. This process will assure that all anti-oxidants and vitamins remain in the oil. Most commonly refining is done in 3 steps: bleaching, winterization and deodorizing.

The first part is bleaching: removing all unnecessary dyes like carotenoids and chlorophyll.

The second part is winterization, which, as the name suggests separates the waxes from other oil components at low temperatures.

The last step is deodorizing. This eliminates unwanted odors and flavors.

After Germany, The Netherlands is the second largest oilseed producer in Europe, producing 5 million tons of oil seeds oils per year. 1 million of this is used for domestic consumption (Ons Voedsel, F.M.De Jong, 2016). Most of this total production is comprised out of refining “cheaper oils” like palm or peanut oil. Cold-pressed oils are mainly produced outside of Europe.

Most used vegetable oils

Palm oil is the most used vegetable oil in the world. It is pressed from the fruit flesh. It originates from western Africa, were Nigeria and Congo are one of the most important palm oil producers (Ons Voedsel, F.M.De Jong, 2016). Peanut oil is also widely used. As the name suggests, it is pressed from peanuts and contains up to 50% oil. Peanuts are grown in China, USA, India and Africa. The peanuts that are not suitable for peanut butter production or direct consumption are used to press peanut oil.

Soy oil is another well-known vegetable oil, extracted from soy beans. Soy beans only contain 17%-27% of oil. it’s a popular crop, due to its wide application possibilities and high protein content. Soy oil mostly is a side product, but abundantly available. Safflower oil is also a highly produced vegetable oil, because of the cheaper raw material. The demand for the raw material usually leads the oil production. On the other hand avocado’s have a higher raw material value and therefore is produced on a much more conservative scale. Want to know more about avocado oil? Check out our previous blog here: https://www.dipasa.nl/avocado-oil-a-hype-or-trend-23-08-2019/.

At Dipasa we hope the above contributes in answering some questions you may have regarding vegetable oils. If you would like additional information, do not hesitate to contact our sales department at: sales@dipasa.nl

References

Ons Voedsel (2016. F.M.De Jong). Retrieved 14-07-2020 from book Ons Voedsel, ISBN 9789059562486, 560 pages.