The shining edible oil in the kitchen is only after many processes of extracting oil from several plants like sunflower, groundnut and others. Deodorization is a vacuum stripping process to remove FFA or free fatty acids and volatile components in crude edible oil. These unwanted elements negatively affect the edible oils’ flavour, colour, stability and odour. Hence, to remove them, the deodorization process after dewaxing the crude edible oils passes the stream at low pressure but high temperature and high vacuum conditions. So, continuous deodorization of oil is a critical step in the refining process of edible oil to improve its high quality and shelf life. 

What is the deodorization process?

Edible oils made from plant sources in the crude form have impurities like free fatty acids that affect their odour or flavour, which is not suitable for cooking purposes. Hence, in this competitive edible oil market, you must have the final product free of unfavourable tastes, odours, and even stability colour. Here, deodorization is essential to remove them to give high-quality edible oil with a longer shelf life. It includes heating the vegetable oil in a multi-compartment vacuum heater up to the desired temperature. The gradual and systematic pre-heating enables all the crude edible oil to come in contact with the sparging system at the free surface of the deodorizer exposed to the vacuum. It helps to reduce the free fatty acids to the desired level to avoid foul odour and flavour. A hating tray kept below the packed column helps to compensate for the unavoidable heat loss because of the evaporation of unwanted free fatty acids. 

What are the different deodorization of oil?

The top edible oil extraction equipment manufacturer offers two types of deodorizers to reduce the FFA to the desired levels. One is the continuous deodorizer with a packet column to pass stream for the vacuum stripping process for a specific period. The second is the semi-continuous deodorizer for removing speciality fats by heating bleached oil through a thermos-siphon arrangement with a changeover of feed oil at short intervals. 

Mectech Process Engineers Pvt Ltd provides world-class continuous and semi-continuous deodorization plants to remove FFA and speciality fats to produce high-quality edible oil.