A quality assessment of crude palm oil marketed in Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

The characteristics of the quality of crude palm oil (CPO) and crude palm olein (CPOL) produced in the states of Bahia and Pará were investigated. Twelve oil samples were analyzed; 2 (CPO) were from Pará (produced industrially), while the other 10 were from Bahia (3 CPOs and 3 CPOLs produced industrially, while 1 CPOL and 3 CPOs were traditionally processed). The chemical analyses included the determination of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), free fatty acids (FFA%), peroxide value (PV), induction time (IT), total carotenoids (TC) and total polar compounds (TPC). The major saturated fatty acids in these samples were palmitic (34.79-42.89 g 100 g–1) and stearic (4.49-5.84 g 100 g–1) acid, and the main unsaturated fatty acids were oleic (37.31-43.69 g 100 g–1) and linoleic (9.04- 12.74 g100 g–1) acid. All samples produced in Bahia exhibited higher FFA (6.77-13.49%) and TPC (13.71-19.50%) levels than permitted in the international quality standards, unlike the samples produced in Pará. TC, PV and IT ranged from 422.1 to 584.2 mg g–1, 1.32 to 3.7 meq O2 kg–1 oil and 1.72 to 4.66 h, respectively. PV, FFA and TPC were inversely correlated with TC and IT. The use of inappropriate oil extraction processes in Bahia is clearly becoming a food safety problem.

Keywords

• carotenoids
• crude palm oil
• crude palm olein
• fatty acid
• free fatty acid
• peroxide value