School of Food Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Rua Monteiro Lobato 80, 13083-862 Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Faculty of Technology, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Rua Pascoal Marmo, 1888, 13484-332 Limeira, SP, Brazil.
Food Res Int. 2021 Feb;140:109998. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109998. Epub 2020 Dec 16.
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil which presents a variety of applications including food, energy, and international trading. However, one of the major concerns associated with palm oil uses as a food ingredient is the significant amount of processing contaminants, such as monochloropropanediol esters (MCPDE) and glycidyl esters (GE) which are formed during the refining process. These contaminants may pose a health risk to consumers due to their carcinogenicity. Thus, mitigation strategies have been studied to reduce these substances in palm oil. In this study, we investigated the effect of the application of an aqueous washing step, as a mitigation strategy, prior to deodorization in three different palm oil cultivation systems: organic, conventional and certified palm oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). In addition, we evaluated the quality parameters after the application of the washing step. For the organic, conventional and RSPO palm oil samples, the aqueous washing step reduced approximately 41%, 34% and 36% of the 3-MCPDE, respectively. The levels of 2-MCPDE for the organic, conventional and RSPO palm oil presented a reduction of 55%, 41% and 32%, respectively. The GE levels are considerably low for all the deodorized palm oils, and presented no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). Besides, the quality parameters such as free fatty acids, color, and OSI met the recommended limits. Therefore, the aqueous washing could be used as a supplementary strategy to reduce these contaminants from palm oil.
棕榈油是一种植物油，具有多种应用，包括食品、能源和国际贸易。然而，作为食品成分使用棕榈油的主要问题之一是精炼过程中形成的大量加工污染物，如单氯丙二醇酯（MCPDE）和缩水甘油酯（GE）。由于这些污染物具有致癌性，可能对消费者的健康构成风险。因此，已经研究了缓解策略以减少棕榈油中的这些物质。在这项研究中，我们研究了在三种不同的棕榈油种植系统（有机、常规和经可持续棕榈油圆桌会议（RSPO）认证的棕榈油）中，在脱臭之前应用水洗涤步骤作为缓解策略的效果。此外，我们评估了应用洗涤步骤后的质量参数。对于有机、常规和 RSPO 棕榈油样品，水洗涤步骤分别减少了约 41%、34%和 36%的 3-MCPDE。有机、常规和 RSPO 棕榈油的 2-MCPDE 水平分别降低了 55%、41%和 32%。所有脱臭棕榈油的 GE 水平都相当低，且没有统计学上的显著差异（p>0.05）。此外，游离脂肪酸、颜色和 OSI 等质量参数均符合建议的限值。因此，水洗涤可以作为一种补充策略，以减少棕榈油中的这些污染物。
