Friday, July 15, 2011

Airplanes flight using cooking oil as fuel ?

Thomson Airways will become the first British airline passengers which fly using biofuel - in this case cooking oil - when operating the service to fly to Spain on July 28. The airline said that it plans to operate flights from Birmingham to Palma, after receiving a final security clearance. According to the Daily Mail, the flight will operate on a 50/50 mix of Jet A1 fuel and esters of the hydroprocess and fatty acids (Hefa) - made from used cooking oil.
The airline plans to operate weekly flights to Spain using biofuels from September, initially on the same route and switch to Birmingham-Alicante during the winter schedule.
"Because biofuels more commercially available, Thomson Airways plans to expand the use of sustainable biofuels in its fleet over the next three years," said Chris Browne, Managing Director of Thomson Airways.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the Dutch airline KLM has been operating the world's first scheduled flight using the Boeing 737-800 biokerosene carrying 171 passengers across from Amsterdam to Paris, using a mixture of jet fuel and the same cooking oil is planned to be used by Thomson.
Trucks using cooking oil as fuel
After a short time ago the European airlines to use aircraft as fuel oil, now turn the truck in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) using the same fuel.
As quoted by the Associated Press on Monday (04/07/2011), now turn to the United Arab Emirates who use fuel oil, which this time is supplied by well-known fast food company, McDonald.
Dubai-based company, Neutral Fuels, announced that it has reached an agreement to process cooking oil from McDonald's outlets in the UAE to be 100 percent biodiesel fuel, for sending food trucks of McDonald in the United Arab Emirates. Neutral Fuels has tested biodiesel fuel last year and began to cultivate it from the cooking oil from McDonald's since the end of May.
"This is very interesting because in the Arab region has never been anyone tried to use this fuel," said Karl W. Feilder, Chairman of the Neutral Group.
"This is the first time we can produce a fuel which is 50 percent cleaner than normal diesel and has lower carbon content, because it comes from the residual cooking oil," he added.
Parties McDonald said that the move is part of their plan with the UAE in terms of new energy sources.
"McDonald's UAE has demonstrated strong commitment in terms of the environment," said Rafic Fakih, Managing Director of McDonlad UAE.
Neutral Fuels said that they have the capacity to produce 1 million liters of biodiesel a year, and those results can also be duplicated.
Although not described in detail how much biodiesel can be produced from 80 McDonald's outlets in the UAE, but Neutral Fuels said that the amount is sufficient to run the vehicles in the country.

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Thursday, July 14, 2011

CBE Processing (Cocoa Butter Equivalent Manufacturing)

One technique that many Cocoa Butter Equivalent processing (CBE manufacturing) carried out so far is by way of blending (mixing) between fat (which is rich in POP triacylglycerols) and other fat (rich in POS and SOS triglycerides). Proportional formulation would result in fat which performs melting and crystallization properties that are very similar to the CB (Cocoa Butter). POP is generally the main source of hard triacylglycerols palm mid fraction (PMF) as a product of multistage fractionation of palm oil. Meanwhile, as a source of POS and SOS can be obtained from exotic fats such as borneo illipe butter (tengkawang), sal stearin, mango stearin, kokum or dhupa fat.
Because of the limited resources of exotic natural fats, so the recent technique of enzymatic interesterification be one option for modifying fats and oils in the CBE production or CBE processing. Enzymatic interesterification usually needs raw material which is rich in oleic oil. Oleic oil is relatively more abundant in availability. During interesterification, redistribution of fatty acids in triacylglycerols will occur, so it will change the composition of fatty acids in triacylglycerols.
The consequences will affect the physical characteristics of oils and fats, such as melting and crystallization properties. The changes could affect the processing that use that material. The production of CBE through enzymatic interesterification can be performed using 1,3 specific lipase catalyst that will catalyze the reaction between the raw material which is rich in POP triacylglycerols such as palm oil and raw material which is rich in tristearin (SSS) or stearic acid, to produce a major triacylglycerols CBE, namely POS and SOS. This enzymatic interesterification has been developed commercially by several world companies of specialty fats, such as Fuji Oil Europe for example. This CBE processing through enzymatic interesterification was also developed by IPB SEAFAST Center, one of which uses a blend of PMF soft substrate (source of POP) with fully hydrogenated soybean oil (source of SSS) as a raw material. Triacylglycerols profile of CBE products relatively similar to the CB as seen in profile analysis using the HPLC chromatograms. Likewise, the profile of solid fat content (SFP) was close to the SFC profile of CB, although it needs further refinement in its fractination.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Tips to reduce acrylamide formation in snack and tips to reduce trans fatty acid

Here are some tips that can be used to reduce formation of acrylamide in products including snack product:
• Use ingredient to prevent the reaction between asparagine and reducing sugars.
• Change the asparagine into other forms, such as aspartic acid, by using enzymes.
• Modification of processes, mainly related to temperature, time, and pH.
• Less / replace the use of raw materials / ingredient containing asparagine and / or a reducing sugar.
World snack industry grow quite rapidly. Innovation and high market demand is the key to why the product is still evolving. In fact, excessive snack consumption is often regarded as a cause of some health problems. For example, obesity, trans fatty acids, acrylamide, and so on.
The condition is exactly what later became a trend in the development of new products. Many industries are then trying to change the image by designing a healthy snack snack. It feels easier, because the food industry also received support from ingredient industry, machinery and other supporting industries. Some snack products that offer health effects of reducing agent, which is an important stage of the formation of acrylamide.
In addition, the use of amino acids are also widely studied. For example proline amino acids commonly found in flour that also could reduce acrylamide formation by 80%. The same is true of several other amino acids, namely tryptophan, cysteine, and glycine, although the level of effectiveness varies.
Meanwhile, researchers from China in a report published by the Journal of Food Chemistry reported that vitamin B3, can also be used to inhibit the formation of acrylamide in french fries by 50%. In that study, Zeng et al. (2009) actually use different types of vitamins, both water-soluble or water insoluble. However, vitamin B3 has the best effectiveness.
Tips to reduce trans fatty acids
Trans fatty acids are formed through partial hydrogenation process and its existence becomes a very important issue in recent years. It is not because the presence of trans fatty acids can lead to greater levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood and the risk of heart disease. So it is not strange if the USFDA requires to include the presence of these fatty acids in the label.
In the snack industry, the presence of trans fatty acids derived from fats and oils are used, especially the shortening and margarine. Actually, the increasing awareness of trans fatty acids is a separate chance for the national oil industry, because the palm oil contains no trans fatty acids.
Research conducted by Byung Hee Kim et al (2009) from the University of Georgia says, that interesterification of a mixture from canola oil, palm stearin and palm kernel oil with a certain ratio can produce a margarine with the same quality as commercial margarine. As for the shortening, a mixture of palm stearin and palm oil can produce a fat that is plastic that can be used as shortening. Jeyarani et al. (2009) in a report published by the Journal of Food Chemistry stated that a mixture containing 60-70% palm stearin palm stearin and 30-40% have a wider melting range, making it suitable to be used as a shortening.

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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What is emulsifier definition?

Recently, developments in food science and technology are going more rapidly. Processed food products are produced to meet various consumer demands. In several markets, both traditional and at the mall, it is not difficult to find ice cream, sauces, bread with soft texture, mayonnaise, salad dressings, margarine, butter, food, baby formula and other dairy products.
The role of emulsifier
Rapidly development of new food products based emulsions caused by of the dual role of emulsifiers. The phenomenon of a mixture of water and oil tend to be separated can be fused because of "miracle" emulsifier. The compound connector that has two distinct poles, pole of polar and non polar, interacts specifically with the two liquids are not mutually dissolved. Under normal conditions, one liquid dispersed into a liquid that does not dissolve each other. Under abnormal conditions, one liquid dispersed in another liquid as globule whose diameter varies between 0.1 and 100 um. Small scattered globule called discontinuous phase. Meanwhile, the medium of the discontinuous phase is referred to as the continuous phase.
Ability emulsifier lowers the surface tension is a way to break the hydrogen bonds at the surface through the hydrophilic head drawdown at the water surface with a hydrophobic tail stretched away from the water surface.
When oil and water mixture shaken, then it provides the mechanical energy, so that droplets of oil dispersed into water and the emulsion is formed. However, this emulsion system is unstable and soon rejoined the oil droplets. In order for oil or water droplets dispersed in both the long time it takes the presence of an appropriate emulsifier.
The definition of emulsifier
Thus, by definition, emulsifiers is a compound having surface activity (surface-active agents) so as to lower the surface tension (surface tension) between the air-liquid and liquid-liquid contained in a system (in this case is a system of food).
Types of emulsifiers and examples of emulsifiers
Examples of emulsions in food systems include milk, margarine, and ice cream. While in general, emulsifiers consist of a natural emulsifier and artificial emulsifier (synthetic emulsifier). Natural emulsifier made from ingredients derived from nature. Eg from soy beans, egg yolks and so on. In the soybean seed, its oil content are very high, in addition to water. Both are connected by a substance called lecithin. The material is then extracted or taken to be emulsifiers that can be used in processing products.
Actually, lecithin is naturally present also in other grains as well as in animal products, like eggs and brains. But the lecithin that is easy and inexpensive to use is found in soybean seeds.
If lecithin is derived from soy beans, then the terms of the halal will be safer. But it is possible to extract lecithin from other materials, such as eggs and animal brains. In addition to increasing the effectiveness of emulsifying, the lecithin is sometimes added with a specific enzyme. This enzyme also needs to watch out its halal status, because it can come from sources that aren’t considered as halal.
The artificial or synthetic emulsifiers are derived from a human engineering to produce a bridge between oil and water. Although it is called as synthetic, but it is not entirely derived from synthetic materials. Only its manufacturing process are designed man-made, but the materials are often derived from natural ingredients.
Emulsifier in the manufacture of emulsion
The process of making emulsion can be done in various ways, such as by using a homogenizer. In this homogenization process, the liquid will be split into smaller droplets followed by droplet covering process by emulsifiers. If the droplet covering by the emulsifier is so slow then the droplet will be incorporated back (recoalescence) so that the droplets are formed tend to be large in size. So we need a proper selection of emulsifiers for the type of emulsion to be formed.

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Friday, July 8, 2011

Frying fat on deep fat -frying (part 2)

Antioxidants play an important role to prevent oxidation by reacting with oxygen so food component is protected. Antioxidants are commonly added to the food are BHA (Butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (Butylated Hydroxy Toluene), and TBHQ (Tertiary Butyl Hydroquinone). Several studies have shown that TBHQ can protect the oil / fat better when compared with BHA or BHT in the frying process. Other components that also contribute to the stability of frying fat is citric acid and silicon metal or Dimethyl Polysiloxane (DMPS). Citric acid can act as a chelating (binding) the metal ions which are the catalysts of oxidation reactions.
DMPS function as anti-foam compound. The use of antioxidants TBHQ for frying fat is usually between 150-200 ppm, whereas the addition of DMPS optimum range 2-5 ppm. The role of DMPS is also associated indirectly with antioxidants, which the foam formation can accelerate oxidative deterioration. Some evaluations also showed that the use of DMPS is even more effective in preventing deterioration to the oil compared with the antioxidant BHT.
The products that have a high turnover such as in the industry of snack, does not require the use of anti-foam. But DMPS can cause problems in the attachment of the outer layer, such as the icing on the donut products, increase the absorption of oil, and reduces crispy texture of the product.
One way to maintain the quality of frying fat is the application of the top up procedure to the frying fats that have been used for several time. This relates to the term of slow oil turnover. Deterioration of oil in the frying of fast oil turnover is less, because the fresh oils / fats added continuously will stabilize the oil quality. In contrast to the frying of slow oil turnover, frying deterioration will be greater because only a little of the used frying fat old will be replaced with fresh frying fat. Increased free fatty acid content is used as an indicator of the extent of deterioration of frying fat.
Simple control of the quality of frying can be done by considering several factors such as discoloration, the formation of foam (foaming), smoke (smoking), changes in aroma and sensory evaluation of the product. Foaming or excessive smoking can cause a fire hazard. Foaming caused by high amounts of polar glycerides, especially those containing high polymer, while the smoke caused by free fatty acids and other breakdown products of low molecular weight.
While the more accurately analysis is done by measuring the parameters of free fatty acids, total polar materials, and peroxide value. All three are components of the reaction of fat frying deterioration and its value increases with increasing the deterioration.
Some developed countries have some criteria when we should not use the frying fat or oil, such as if the water content> 3 g / kg; free fatty acid content of> 1 g / kg; peroxide value> 2 meq / kg; smoke point less than 170 Celcius degree; content of polar compounds more than 25%; and polymeric compounds content> 10%.

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Physicochemical properties of sesame oil

Sesame oil is soluble in alcohol and can be dissolved in ether, chloroform, petroleum benzene, but sesame oil is not soluble in water. After sesame oil was purified and met the quality standards of trade, sesame oil showed light yellow color, is odorless, has a savory taste and showed no symptoms of cloud at a temperature of 0 degree Celcius.
Sesame oil is used for cooking oil and for various industrial purposes. Sesame oil contains antioxidants (sesamin, and sesamolin) so sesame oil can be stored more than one year without being deteriorated (rancid). Potato chips fried in sesame oil could be stored up to three months, while potato chips fried in corn oil could only stored up to three weeks. Sesame oil contains a low saturated fatty acid, so that sesame oil provide many benefits both on health and the potential to maintain fitness.

Sesame oil contains oleic acid 35.50 to 37.5%, linoleic acid 35-50%, less than 1% linolenic acid and saturated fatty acids palmitic 11.07%. Basically, sesame oil contains high unsaponifiable matters in the form of sterols, but levels of non-oil materials is relatively low. The typical character of sesame oil is contain approximately 0.3 to 0.5% sesamoline and also contain sesamin about 0.5 to 0.1%. Sesamol in sesame oil produced from the hydrolysis of sesamoline and is an antioxidant. Phosphatides compounds present in small amount of about 0.1 percent in sesame oil, whereas the amount of tocopherol in sesame oil was less than 0.06%.
High-grade crude sesame oil can be used as a salad oil without winterization (winterization) process. Sesame oil is used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry, as in the manufacture of ammonia liniment because the physical properties of sesame oil are not easily separated . Sesame oil is synergistic with phrethrum. These were the unique characteristics of sesame oil. Sesame oil has a positive optical rotation value.
Physicochemical properties of sesame oil can be summarized as follows. Density of sesame oil at a temperature of 25 Celcius degree is 0.916 to 0.921. Refractive index of sesame oil at a temperature of 25 Celcius degree is 1.4763. Iodine value of sesame oil is 103-112. Saponification value of sesame oil is 188-193. Reichert-meiss value of sesame oil is 1.2. Hehner value of sesame oil is 95.6 to 95.9. Freezing point of sesame oil is 21 – 24 Celcius degree. Melting point of sesame oil is 21 to 31.5 Celcius degree.

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Monday, July 4, 2011

The potential of coconut-based industries in Indonesia

If you walk to the island of Sumatra (Indonesia), surely you will often find coconut trees everywhere. So far the use of coconut in Sumatra is still very limited both by residents and local governments. Generally, coconut is only used as food ingredients (coconut milk) or beverages (coconut ice) which are economically value-added is low. It is not too much different from their use in general in Indonesia, which was still preoccupied with food and beverage products. This is actually very unfortunate. Because of the potential of coconut to enhance the welfare of the community and to expand employment is quite promising.

Actually, various commercial products from coconut bioindustry are highly diverse, not only food and beverage products. These include the utilization of liquid smoke (as an alternative preservative to substitute formalin), Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO), biodiesel, adsorbents, cooking oil, soap products, coconut coir fiber, charcoal briquettes (a substitute for coal ), nata de coco, activated carbon, and others. With adequate capitalization of the government or private, all of the products can be a potential bioindustry.
Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO)
Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) or pure coconut oil is one of f coconut products that have been known to be very good for health. This oil is produced by squeezing fresh coconuts to get the oil without cooking. The advantage of this process is the oil obtained can hold up to two years without becoming rancid. The VCO contains almost 50% lauric acid (C-12) causes the health effects of the VCO is similar to breast milk. This is due to lauric acid in the human body is converted into monolaurin. Monolaurin itself is as antiviral, antibacterial and antiprotozoa. Monolaurin could damage the lipid membranes of viruses such as HIV, influenza, hepatitis C, and cytomelagovirus.
Biodiesel Oil
Utilization of coconut which is also not less interesting is as a feedstock for biodiesel. From research by students from Brigham Young University, to get 1 liter of biodiesel needed 10 pieces of coconut and produce glycerin as a by-products. This glycerin is used for the manufacture of soap. In Indonesia, the assessment of biodiesel from coconut has been carried out by the BPPI or Agency for Industrial Research and Development, Ministry of Industry. In the assessment is known that oil can be used as an alternative to diesel (coco diesel). A liter of diesel can be obtained from the processing of six coconuts. The trial coconut diesel has also been tested on Mitsubishi vehicles and reach distances of up to 20 thousand miles nonstop, and passed the test. When endurance test (performance) held the vehicle suffered only 4% power down.
Edible Oil Products
Cooking oil from coconut based on the scientific study of is the safest and most healthy. Medium-chain fatty acid content (middle-chain fatty acids / MCFA), which reaches 92% is high compared to most other vegetable oils. MCFA is directly absorbed in the body by the intestinal wall without going through the process of hydrolysis or enzymatic. And also, when the coconut oil used for frying, its chemical structure will not change at all because 92% of the fatty acid is in the form of the saturated fatty acid Meanwhile, other vegetable oils will be thick, if the oil used for frying, because the process of polymerization (clotting) occurs. Additionally, coconut oil also does not produce trans fatty acids and free radicals that are toxic (poison) and carcinogenic (causing cancer).
Soap Products
Glycerin is a byproduct of the coconut oil industry. Glycerin is a clear liquid, odorless and has a sweet taste. Glycerin used in industry as raw material for making soap. Because of its nature as a humectant, so that the glycerin serves as a skin moisturizer in the soap. In a household scale, soap can be made with ingredients that are affordable and can be obtained in chemicals stores.
Conclusion
Actually there are many other high quality products from coconut that can not be described further in this article due to various limitations. The use of coconut as raw material for cosmetics, white copra, knick-knacks art, the manufacture of shampoo, margarine, activated carbon, the raw material for medicines, and so forth. Because so manifold benefits of this coconut, it is not surprising if the coconut got the nickname as a tree of life.
With a view on the potential development of the coconut in Indonesia, Coconut should get more attention and become a superior commodity in Indonesia. It'd be nice if the producers do not meet the current world market that tends to palm oil, but they creates its own market based on coconut products, so the next few years, along with the quality and quantity of coconut products is increasing, a new trend in the world would be created: the transition of export and import to coconut products and derivatives.

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