Coconut oil is extensively used for food and industrialpurposes. The oil is rich in medium chain fatty acids(MCFA) and exhibits good digestibility (Che Man & Marina,2006). Various methods have been developed to extract coconut oil, either through dry or wet processing. Dry processing is the most widely used form of extraction. Clean, groundand steamed copra is pressed by wedge press, screw press orhydraulic press to obtain coconut oil, which then goesthrough the refining, bleaching, and deodorizing (RBD) processes. During the RBD process, heating process is appliedespecially during deodorization process, which is carriedout at high temperature between 204 and 245 C (O’Brien,2004). The copra industry also faced some problems suchas contamination by aflatoxin in copra and cake and presenceof high free fatty acids due to high moisture content (Guarte,Muhlbauer, & Kellert, 1996).Recently, there is a trend towards producing coconut oilwhich does not have to go through the RBD process. Ratherthan going to the normal dry process, this oil is obtained bywet processing which entails the extraction of the creamfrom the fresh coconut milk and consequently breakingthe cream emulsion. This process is more desirable as nochemical or high heat treatment is imposed on the oil.The coconut oil produced through the wet method is knownas virgin coconut oil (VCO).
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