Standard Compliant Fat Refinery Process Optimization

Various processes are applied during fat refining, such as raffination, transesterification or fat hardening. Each workflow requires samples to be characterized after defined process steps. One of the most important techniques for this purpose is the melting point detection. METTLER TOLEDO's FP83HT offers easy, reliable and automated determination of the fat melting point.

Methods for thermal values of fat determination
Although it is customary to speak of the melting points of fats, they really have no melting point in the proper sense of the word. Pure substances have a sharp melting point, i.e., the temperature of transition from the solid to the liquid state. Fats are invariably mixtures of mixed triglycerides and each individual triglyceride has its own melting point. Fats, therefore, have a melting range.

A variety of methods exist for the determination of the melting point (mp) of fats. These include the Wileymp (AOCS Method Cc 2-38), open capillary slip point, softening point and METTLER TOLEDO's dropping point (AOCS Method Cc 18-80). The conditions under which the tests are performed influence the values obtained. The methods were compared using a variety of fats. The METTLER TOLEDO dropping point values were found to coincide with the extrapolated solid fat curves obtained using wide-line NMR for all fats except butterfat.

The perfect solution
The METTLER TOLEDO dropping point is an automated version of the Ubbelohde dropping-point method. A sample cup filled with fat is placed in an automatically heated furnace where the falling of the first drop of fat is sensed photometrically and indicated on a digital display. The standard deviations of the slip melting point determinations were dependent on the kind of fat measured between 0.3 °C and 1.2 °C. The same measurements, using a METTLER TOLEDO FP83HT dropping point cell, resulted in standard deviations between 0.1 °C and 0.3 °C. The reproducibility of the METTLER TOLEDO dropping point and softening point are excellent compared to the slip point.

Measuring the dropping point of fats with the METTLER TOLEDO FP83HT offers the easy, reliable and automated determination of the melting point of fats.

METTLER TOLEDO specializes in the area of precision instruments for professional use. METTLER TOLEDO laboratory instruments are used in research, scientific, drug discovery, and quality control labs, amongst many others in the pharmaceutical, chemical, food and cosmetics industries. METTLER TOLEDO comprehensive industrial solutions cover the various steps in a host of manufacturing processes at many of the same customers that laboratory serves. Solutions range from receiving raw materials through various manufacturing processes, in-line process control and end-of-line packaging control, to logistics and shipping. Increasingly, these solutions are fully integrated into the customer's IT environment, helping automate their workflows. In food retail, our offering for fresh food management ranges from receiving and pre-packaging, to in-store solutions for self-service departments, deli counters, and checkout terminals.

Mettler-Toledo International Inc.
Im Langacher, Zip Code 8606
Greifensee, Switzerland
E-Mail : ePublicRelations@mt.com
Phone : +41-44-944 33 85
Website : www.mt.com

This release was published on openPR.