Chapter 16 - Vegetable Oils and Fats

Abstract

Oils and fats are important for food preparation or as ingredient in food. Vegetable oils and fats may contain contaminants like pesticide residues, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mineral oil hydrocarbons, and mycotoxins. The risk for presence of a contaminant in an extracted oil depends on practices applied in the specific oil and fat supply chain. These risks are classified in a crude oil risk matrix, and this matrix can be used to determine the frequency of contaminant analyses. Oils and fats are normally refined before food use to improve taste and appearance. This refining process also reduces the levels of most of the contaminants. Contaminant levels below legal limit or industry standard can be assured by combination of extracted oil analyses and refining process validation. The refining process may also introduce unhealthy side-reaction products like trans fatty acids, 3-MCPD, and glycidyl esters. The refining process parameters should be adjusted to mitigate the levels of these processing contaminants.