Interesting facts on the Process of refining sunflower oil
Interesting facts on the Process of refining sunflower oil
Nowadays usage of refined sunflower oil has increased and it has become a very common cooking oil, Due to this the cultivation of Sunflower has expanded to a larger extent and the countries that involves in cultivation are Ukraine, Russia, China, Bulgaria, Romania, United republic of Tanzania, Turkey, Hungry, France, and Argentina etc.
Sunflower oil as a very healthy form of cooking oil is extracted from sunflower seeds by solvent extraction method or screw oil press method. When the oil is extracted from the sunflower seed it is called as Crude sunflower oil and at this stage the oil have impurities , undesirable oil-soluble and insoluble impurities. The crude sunflower oil should not be used and it has to go through filtering and refining process, before the final refined sunflower oil is achieved. The impurities that are present in the crude sunflower oil is very harmful and hazardous to health and many of the refined sunflower oil manufacturers fail to filter the impurities in order to make profit by delivering unhygienic oil which can cause fatal health issues.The Crude sunflower oil contains hydratable and non-hydratable gums , free fatty acids, coloring pigments like Carotenoids, moisture, oxidative component like aldehyde & ketone, metallic element, waxes and other impurities.
If this stage is not properly handled or if they skip the stage then there is a possibility of crude sunflower oil forming wax which is dangerous for cooking and consuming. A best sunflower oil manufacturer will genuinely follow the following steps!
- Degumming
- Netrualisation
- Bleaching
- Dewaxing
- Deodorization / De-acidification.
In general, refining crude vegetable oil consists of two methods one is physical refining and the other one is chemical refining. It doesn’t matter what kind of process is followed as both the process are effective enough to extract oil from the seeds of sunflower, cottonseed,peanuts,sesame,soya bean etc.
Degumming / Neutralization process:
Degumming is the first step in refining of the crude sunflower oil. Degumming is done to eradicate phosphatides & other impurities. This process purifies the seed oil and it removes hydratable and non hydratable gums.
Bleaching process:
It is an essential part of the refining process of crude sunflower oil. This bleaching process removes coloring pigments as well as other undesirable impurities that are harmful to human consumption. The coloring pigments like Carotenoids & chlorophyll, some oxidative products, sediment soap traces, metals and residual phosphatides all these causes adverse effect on human life. By removing these the oil gets ready for commercial purpose with long shelf life.
Dewaxing process:
In this process the cloud point of the refined sunflower oil is reduced drastically. Some solid particles present in the oil can cause cloudiness, hence Dewaxing is done to remove those solid particles by making the oil pure and visible
Deodorization process:
This process is also called as Deacidification and it involves in stripping process as a little amount of low pressure steam passes through hot oil . various types of volatile molecules and odoriferous compounds are removed in this process . This process is carried out in very high temperature like more than 200 degree Celsius.
A Good sunflower oil refinery must follow the following process to deliver a high quality oil that would be most suitable for cooking. But in many cases the most of the oil refineries do not follow the process authentically, they either be unhygienic towards achieving it, or they do not follow the refining stages 100 % . They either skip the process and follow adulteration to make it a commercial profit. Sunright refined sunflower oil, is the only oil with Agmark certification and they follow every process with dedication and commitment. With the most advanced technology and with machine processing they strictly follow hygiene and no hands are involved it making of oil. Before choosing your cooking oil it is important to have a thorough knowledge on it as the health of the entire family in the hands of the person who chooses the cooking oil.
