Edible Oil Refinery Process

Edible oils that have very high content of fatty acids needs to be refined before using as cooking oil. The main edible oil refinery process includes Degumming，Deacidification, Bleaching，Deodorization，Winterization and Degreasing. The foremost propose of refining process is removing extra fatty acids and preventing the oils from oxidation. However, the edible oil refinery process isn't only limited to remove fatty acids, it also removes the undesired components, color and odor which otherwise may have a negative impact on the taste, odor, and appearance of the product. The resultant oil is thinner without fatty acids, colorless and odorless.

Edible Oil Refinery

•  Physical refining
• Chemical refining
• Chemical-physical refining

Chemical refining is the traditional method whereby the free fatty acid of the crude oils are neutralized with caustic soda. The resultant Sodium Soaps are removed by Batch Settling or by means of centrifugal separators. The neutral oils are subsequently bleached and deodorized. This method can be used for reliably refining virtually all crude oils, including oils of low quality, with the exception of Castor Oil.

In all alternative method of edible oil refining of Physical refining, the free fatty acids are removed by distillation in one stage of deodorizing. A fundamental criterion for using this method is that the crude oils should be degummed as effectively as possible, however this is only possible to a limited extent with some crude oil qualities. Other oils for instance cottonseed oil or fish oils, are fundamentally not suitable for physical refining.