Phospholipase cocktail: A new degumming technique for crude soybean oil

Enzymatic degumming (EDG) is an emerging alternative process for decreasing the phosphorus content, increasing the oil yield, and preserving the oil quality. Purifine® 3G is a cocktail of phospholipases composed of phospholipase A2 (PLA2), phospholipase C (PLC), and phosphatidylinositol phospholipase C (PI-PLC). In this study, Purifine® 3G was applied to crude soybean oil, and the optimum degumming conditions (enzyme concentration, temperature, and water dosage) were determined using a central composite rotatable design (CCRD). The contents of diacylglycerols (DAGs) and free fatty acids (FFAs) in the studied system considerably increased at temperatures below 64 °C and enzyme concentrations above 100 mg/kg, while the phosphorus content decreased with increasing water amount and enzyme concentration. In particular, EDG with 200 mg/kg of Purifine® 3G conducted for 120 min at a temperature of 60 °C and water concentration of 3% (w/w) lowered the residual phosphorus content to 8.9 mg/kg and increased the FFA and DAG concentrations by 0.17% and 0.72%, respectively. Meanwhile, EDG retained the tocopherol content in crude soybean oil, maintaining its quality. Hence, Purifine® 3G increases the neutral oil yield (FFA and DAG), decreases the phosphorus content, and preserves the oil quality, which make it a commercially viable degumming agent.