By: María del Pilar Noriega E., PhD, R&D and Innovation Director
The incidence of undesirable contaminants in vegetable and edible oils, such as palm oil, may have different sources: plantations, the environment, harvesting, storage, transport, processing, packaging, up until final distribution.
There are contaminants in the environment that can enter the palm oil value chain, for example, dioxins, furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB).
Mineral oil hydrocarbon contaminants may be traced from vehicle exhaust (trucks), lubricants that leak from equipment during palm oil extraction and processing, migration from packaging materials like certain plastics or cardboards, release and cleaning agents, and more. Mineral oils are categorized as MOSH (Mineral Oil Saturated Hydrocarbons), and MOAH, (Mineral Oil Aromatic Hydrocarbons). The migration of polyolefin oligomeric saturated hydrocarbons, usually from packaging, is categorized as POSH. Production processes for oil refining may unintentionally foster the formation of some undesired esters at high temperatures or at extended production times: 3-Monochloropropane-1,2- diol (3MCPD) and glycidol esters (GE).
The contaminants in palm oil described above are limited to established safe levels, or Tolerable Daily Intakes (TDI), because of adverse health effects and concerns for public health. These TDI’s can be found on the websites of recognized authorities, e.g., EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), EC (European Commission), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), PMC (US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health), and others.
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Figure 1: Quality Assurance (QA) and Monitoring at Daabon
Daabon has made the most of quality assurance (QA) and invested over several years in our own on-site analytics, for monitoring and mitigating the presence of important groups of contaminants in palm oil, i.e.:
· Gas chromatography (GC-MS) for the determination of 3MCPD and glycidyl esters (GE) in 2016, and
· MOSH/MOAH system based on HPLC and GC chromatography in 2021, currently in the required validation and benchmarking process for quality systems (QS), see Figure 2.
The company’s products are following international standards for esters and mineral oil hydrocarbons in vegetable and edible oils, such as:
· 3MCPD < 1 mg/kg
· GE < 1 mg/kg
· MOSH < 13 mg/kg
· MOAH < 1 mg/kg
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Figure 2: MOSH/MOAH System installed in Santa Marta
The company’s market opportunities are based on high-quality products, good manufacturing practices and staying ahead with additional R&D and innovation.
KEY REFERENCES
1. EFSA, European Food Safety Authority, https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2019.EN-1741
2. EC, European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/default/files/eur_29666_en_-_fcm_mineral_oil_guidance_full_size_figure.pdf
3. EC, European Commission, https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC110610/eur29109en_-_mvs_mcpde_and_ge_in_food_final_report.pdf
4. Commission regulation (EU), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32020R1322&rid=1
5. FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization, specialized Agency of United Nations, https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/news-and-events/news-details/es/c/1204499/
6. PMC, US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8281601/