COOKING OIL (MUSTARD, GROUNDNUT, PALM, COCONUT ETC.)

Indian Edible Oil Industry Vegetable oil and oil seeds are two of the essential commodities for the consumer’s daily needs. India is one of the largest producers of oilseeds in the world with an area of 26.54 million hectares under cultivation producing 23-28 million tonnes of oil seeds every year depending on the monsoons. It produces nine types of oil seeds namely, Groundnut, Soybean, Rape/Mustard seed, Sunflower seed, Sesame seed, Castor seed, Niger seed, Safflower seed, Linseed. It also enjoys the position of being the third largest consumer of edible oil in the world next only to US and China owing to its growing population, rising income levels and changing eating habits.

The per capita consumption has grown by 8.1 per cent over the last five years. It stood at 12.5 kg/person per annum which is considerably low as compared to the world average of 17.5 kg/ annum. Developed countries like Japan, Brazil and USA consume around 20.8 kg/annum, 21.3 kg/annum and 48.0 kg/annum respectively. The imports mainly comprise Palm oil, Soybean oil and Sunflower oil. Indonesia, Argentina and Malaysia are the key exporters of oil to India. Olive oil is mainly imported from European countries like Italy and Spain. Rapeseed oil is imported from UAE.

While mustard seeds are abundantly produced in most parts of India, its milling/grinding is mostly done by the large centralized plants, which have the advantage of high efficiency and reduced costs due to economies of scale. Despite the clear advantage of large plants, the importance of tiny decentralized oil extraction units cannot be discounted as they also prove to be economic and present opportunities for self- employment in situations:

where oil produced by large plants do not find its way to remote and distant places because of high transportation costs involved in wider distribution and in places where there is no oil expeller in the area and the farmers sell oil seeds to large refineries which they then buy back at high cost in the form of cooking oil but without the valuable high protein oil cake.

Therefore, in recognition of the existing opportunities of setting-up mustard oil expeller units in such situations, tiny units are suggested for the first generation Tribal entrepreneurs – the investment for which is modest and the operation is simple.

The unit is required to maintain a minimum stock of seed and enough to continue operations throughout the year. Hence, the location of the unit has to be essentially in those areas where the raw material is locally available in abundance.

In general, more profit could be made if the cooking oil is packed into retail size bottles.

However, considering the difficulty in obtaining glass or plastic bottles in large quantities in remote areas and blocking thereby substantial capital, the possibility of using second- hand bottles may be utilised. Alternatively, oil could be sold in drums to the provision stores in neighboring towns/cities.

The viability of any oil extraction unit considerably depends on the sale of the oil cake, which is extensively used as animal feed and other sub-products.

Primitive mills and presses for extraction of oils from seeds have been in use sevice long. Mechanization came with the introduction of the hydraulic press by the end of the 18th Century. This too was replaced by the more efficient screw press or expeller towards the end of the last century.

Edible oil should have a fairly high keeping quality. However oils get spoilt in storage due to various spoilage factors, the chief among them being oxidation. The edible oils and fats such as olive, cottonseed, corn, groundnut, sesamum, soyabean etc have been found to be almost completely assimulated. As such vegetable oils may be classed as edible and non-edible. Important vegetable oils are castor, coconut, cottonseed, linseed, mustard,olive, palm, groundnut, sesamum, soyabeans, sunflower and rice bran oil etc.

Oil seed crops occupy an important place in the agriculture and industrial economy of the country. India is perhaps the only country in the world having the largest number of commercial varieties of oil seeds. Mustard Oil is also one of the major oil seeds from which edible oil is produced. In Northern & Central India. It is medium of cooking food. Besides it is also used in preparation of Pickles. The Mustard Oil Cake (By Product) is used as cattle feed.

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) extracted from fresh coconut meat without chemical processes is said to be the mother of all oils. It is rich in medium chain fatty acids, particularly lauric acid and is a treasure trove of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and is an excellent nutraceutical.

It has about 50% lauric acids, having qualities similar to mother’s milk thus confirming its disease-fighting ability, Where lauric acid enters human body its get converted to Monolaurin which has the ability to enhance immunity.

Several studies have confirmed that this compound has the ability to kill viruses including herpes and numerous other bacteria. Its antiviral effect has the ability to considerably reduce the viral load of HIV patients. VCO is not subjected to high temperatures, solvents or refinement procedures and therefore retains the fresh scent and taste of coconuts. It is rich in vitamin E, is non-greasy, non-staining and is widely used in soaps, lotions, creams and lip balms. The health benefits of VCO are second to none; ranging from speeding up body metabolic system and providing immunity against a horde of commonly prevalent diseases.

The oil palm which originated in west Africa is also extensively Cultivated in the Congo, South East Asia and Central and South America. An old palm now growing in the Botanic Garden’s at bogor some miles inland from Jakarta pro claim’s it was introduced there in 848 and is the mother plant of the south East Asian plantation Evidently, four tree were sent from the Bontonic Gardens Amsterdam to Javavia Mausitius about this time for purely ornamental purposes Huge plantation in the Congo mere later organised by the first Lord Loverhulme, demonstrating the feasibility of improved oil yield and quality. In the decade 1970-80 the scientific cultivation of the oil palm advanced. Malaya to the pre-eminent position in this breeding of types most suitable to a particular environment has long been an important scientific study in the world vegetable oil Business.

Although the oil from the palm fruit is commercially important it is one of the most important lausic oil (along with coconut oil, which it resembles in several respect). Palmitic and oleiacaid in nearly equal proportion account for about 80% of fatty acid composition of palm oil; which predominates helps to decade the physical character of the particular variety in which they occur but another factor of out standing importance, especially in the case of palm oil, is the way in which the fatty acid’s are groupped to form the tregly cerides suffice it to say that the proportion of trisaturates (6-9%) oleo dipalmitin and dioleo Palmitir account for about half of the troglycerides present : linolenic acid is absent from nature fruit. Potentially then palm oil has a composition which is resistant to atmosphere oxidation. The composition of fatty acid in oil from hybrid varieties and it possible nutritional value has also been the subject of investigation.

It has been reported that the B-Carotene content of palm oil acts as a pro-oxident in opposition to the antic oxident influence of the to copherols also present and that when the B-Carotene is much diminished by refining, bleaching etc. this lifts the oxidetive stability very markedly. As much as 0.2% Carotene is found in some varies of palm oil, giving the oil its characteristics orange red Coloration.

Nigerian palm oil has very often been found to have 35oC m.p. as against 37o C m.p. for Malayscan oil. The corresponding variation would be approzimately vs 0-550; variation is Malaysian oil of 35-38oC m.p. has been noted.

Palm oil which is handled or stored in a warm temperature i.e. above melting point, and a moist environment easily splits to give an extremely high FFA (5 – 50%) So called soft palm oil were at the lower end of the FFA scale in the 5 -10% FFA region and still normally well-fitted for edible use. After appropriate refining. At the other end of the scale the palm oil would be destined for technical use. For intermediate situations where the FFA has risen to over 12% and therefore, where double that percentage of removal of fatty matter has to be envisaged. Fortunately, the Quality of crude palm oil has shown a steady improvement for year’s by the application of more rational methods of handling. Although a contractual basis of 5% FFA as norm may apply to many purchases of palm oil much superior qualities are available from Malaya and Zaire with limits covering FFA at 20%, The metal content and degree of oxidation. Naturally, these superior grades primarily envisage the use of the palm oil as being for edible purposes for the best quality crude oil not more that 0.2 ppm Cu and 5 ppm FE are to be expected at most. Commercially, the accepted maximum for moisture and impurities is normally 0.5% of which only a little 0.02% is likely to be a solid impurity. Iodine value ranges from 52 to 58, refractine index – 1.4495 – 1.4515, unsaponicfiable (%) up to 0.8

There is a well-sustained effort to improve the quality of crude palm oil. The recovery of palm oil of novel quality from the bunches of palm fruit as harvested reqiure’s rapid de-activation of the lipase present in the fruit.