Enhancing the Quality of Virgin Coconut Oil by Reducing Sediments: A Case Study at Cocotana Coconut Product Mills, Katana

Abstract

Virgin Coconut oil (VCO) is a clear vegetable oil, with a distinct coconut flavour and aroma. In Sri Lanka, VCO is manufactured using fresh dry method, whereas wet-milling and fermentation methods are also used. Standards of the VCO are largely depend upon the type of processing and filter used in the process. The quality deterioration of VCO occurs due to sedimnts/foots at the bottom of the bottle, giving turbid appearance. Therefore this experiment was conducted to find out the reasons for sedimentation in the final product, aiming for enhancing the quality of VCO. Five oil samples were taken from tanks and kept for a period of thirty days. Then the amount of sediment was quantified by measuring the volume of the foot The foots was tested for percentage of free fatty acid (% FFA) using 0.082 N potassium hydroxide solution. A test was done to enumerate the yeast and mold on the foots using SLS 516 standards. According to the results, the plate and frame filter press 1 and plate and frame filter press 2 exhibited significantly better filtration ability than that of the polish filter and the cartridge filter. This concludes that the foots could be reduced by improving the filtration process. This study proposes to place the filter after the settling tank which keeps the oil for seven days as a measure to enhance VCO quality by improving clarity.