Color Reversion of Refined Vegetable Oils: A Review

During the transport, storage, and consumption of edible vegetable oils, the color of some freshly refined oils is gradually darkened, which is known as the color reversion. The oil industry has been plagued by the issue for a long time because the dark color of the oil is related to its poor quality and low acceptability for consumers. Color reversion of refined vegetable oils is primarily related to the processing pigments, especially tocored, which is the oxidation product of γ-tocopherol. However, the underlying molecular action mechanism of tocored is not yet fully understood due to the complex transformations of tocored in oil systems. This paper presents a brief description of oil color, followed by an overview of research progress on the mechanism of color reversion. In particular, the effect of minor components (phospholipids and metal ions) on color reversion is highlighted in an attempt to explain the remaining mysteries of color reversion. Furthermore, the measures to restrain color reversion by quality control of the oilseeds, the adjustment of technical parameters of processing, and the storage conditions of refined oils are summarized to provide some references for the oil industry.

Sustainable Refining of Vegetable Oil Made Easy with a Designer Phospholipase C Enzyme

The increasing demand pressures the vegetable oil industry to develop novel refining methods. Degumming with type C phospholipases (PLCs) is a green technology and provides extra oil. However, natural PLCs are not active under the harsh conditions used in oil refining plants, requiring additional unit operations. These upfront capital expenditures and the associated operational costs hinder the adoption of this method. Here, we present a process based on ChPLC, a synthetic PLC obtained by consensus sequence design, possessing superior thermal stability and catalytic properties. Using ChPLC, crude soybean oil degumming was completed at 80 °C in 30 min, the temperature and residence time imposed by the design of existing oil refining plants. Remarkably, an extra yield of oil of 2% was obtained using 60% of the dose recommended for PLCs marketed today, saving upfront investments and reducing the operational cost of degumming. A techno-economic analysis indicates that, for medium size plants, ChPLC reduces the overall cost of soybean oil enzymatic degumming by 58%. The process presented here facilitates the implementation of enzymatic technologies to oil producers, regardless of their processing capacity, bringing potential annual benefits in the billion-dollar range for the global economy.

Refining Vegetable Oils: Chemical and Physical Refining

This review presents recent technologies involved in vegetable oil refining as well as quality attributes of crude oils obtained by mechanical and solvent extraction. Usually, apart from virgin oils, crude oils cannot be consumed directly or incorporated into various food applications without technological treatments (refining). Indeed, crude oils like soybean, rapeseed, palm, corn, and sunflower oils must be purified or refined before consumption. The objective of such treatments (chemical and physical refining) is to get a better quality, a more acceptable aspect (limpidity), a lighter odor and color, longer stability, and good safety through the elimination of pollutants while minimizing oil loss during processing. However, the problem is that refining removes some essential nutrients and often generates other undesirable compounds such as 3-MCPD-esters and trans-fatty acids. These compounds directly influence the safety level of refined oil. Advantages and drawbacks of both chemical and physical refining were discussed in the light of recent literature. Physical refining has several advantages over chemical one.

Effective Expression of the Serratia marcescens Phospholipase A1 Gene in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), Enzyme Characterization, and Crude Rapeseed Oil Degumming via a Free Enzyme Approach

Crude oil degumming by phospholipid removal is crucial to guarantee oil quality. Phospholipase degumming could produce green vegetable oil by reducing energy consumption and protecting the environment. To develop a novel phospholipase for oil degumming, we cloned the Serratia marcescens outer membrane phospholipase A gene (OM-PLA1) and expressed its 33 KDa protein in engineered Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). OM-PLA1 activity reached 18.9 U mL^-1 with the induction of 0.6 mM isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside for 4 h. The optimum temperature and pH were 50°C and 7.5, respectively. Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Co²⁺, and Mn²⁺ at 0.1 mM L^-1 significantly increased OM-PLA1 activity. The kinetic equations of OM-PLA1 and Lecitase Ultra were y = 13.7x+0.74 (K_m = 18.53 mM, V_max = 1.35 mM min^-1) and y = 24.42x+0.58 (K_m = 42.1 mM, V_max = 1.72 mM min^-1), respectively. The phosphorus content decreased from 22.6 to 9.3 mg kg^-1 with the addition of 15 units of free recombinant OM-PLA1 into 150 g of crude rapeseed oil. OM-PLA1 has the close degumming efficiency with Lecitase Ultra. The S. marcescens outer membrane phospholipase gene (OM-PLA1) possessed higher substrate affinity and catalytic efficiency than Lecitase Ultra. This study provides an alternative approach to achieve crude vegetable oil degumming with enzymatic technology.

Influence of Bio-Oil Phospholipid on the Hydrodeoxygenation Activity of NiMoS/Al2O3 Catalyst

Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) activity of a typical hydrotreating catalyst, sulfided NiMo/γ-Al2O3 for deoxygenation of a fatty acid has been explored in a batch reactor at 54 bar and 320 °C in the presence of contaminants, like phospholipids, which are known to be present in renewable feeds. Oleic acid was used for the investigation. Freshly sulfided catalyst showed a high degree of deoxygenation activity; products were predominantly composed of alkanes (C17 and C18). Experiments with a major phospholipid showed that activity for C17 was greatly reduced while activity to C18 was not altered significantly in the studied conditions. Characterization of the spent catalyst revealed the formation of aluminum phosphate (AlPO4), which affects the active phase dispersion, blocks the active sites, and causes pore blockage. In addition, choline, formed from the decomposition of phospholipid, partially contributes to the observed deactivation. Furthermore, a direct correlation was observed in the accumulation of coke on the catalyst and the amount of phospholipid introduced in the feed. We therefore propose that the reason for the increased deactivation is due to the dual effects of an irreversible change in phase to aluminum phosphate and the formation of choline.