2 ill., 5 tables
Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is normally produced by natural fermentation process, that has chance to have repulsive odors. Some consumers do not accept natural coconut oil odor. The objective of this research is to study 3 odor removal processes, water extraction, steam distillation and nitrogen distillation. From the experiments on putrid VCO, it was found that the suitable conditions of water extraction was 75 deg C 5 minutes for 5 times, steam distillation was 90 deg C for 3 hours and nitrogen distillation was 90 deg C nitrogen feed rate 0.2 bar for 20 minutes. When three odor removal processes at their suitable conditions were compared, the nitrogen distillation was the most suitable process to remove odor of VCO. Then nitrogen distillation was used for odor removal of control, putrid and ketonic oils. Intensity before and after odor removal of each kind of oil were compared by using comparison test. It was found that it could remove all 3 kinds of odor . Furthermore, free fatty acid content of all kinds of oil and unsaponifiable matter of putrid oil were decreased. Fatty acid compositions of all oils were changed after odor removal, but was still within the range of Asian and Pacific Coconut Community standard.