Production Stages

 

•   SCRAPING OF COCONUTS.

          Shown above is an improved coconut scraping machine used for medium or large manufacturing process

•   DRYING OF SCRAPED COCONUT.

• SCRAPED COCONUTS ARE  DRIED  . Moisture of coconuts is removed and oil should be felt  when pressing by finger tip .

• EXTRACTING OF VIRGIN COCONUT  OIL.

        Above method is suitable for domestic extraction of virgin coconut oil.However  more improved machinary   is used for medium and large scale production.

Special Scientific Processes.

There are several scientific processes involved with manufacture of white coconut oil.

DEHYDRATION ; It is the process of removal of moisture from shred coconut .If coconut scrapings are not well or properly dehydrated the oil become rancid .It is done by sending steam through scrapings. The moisture content should be 0.5% maximum.

DOUBLE BOIL METHOD ; Water is filled to the vessel. Then oil is added and temperature is kept at 60 degrees maximum  using a thermometer .Then it is heated for 10-15 minutes .

Scientific Explanation-The moisture particles in the oil sample is evaporated.

LABORATORY TESTINGS- There are 10 lab tests .Some of them are;

1. Moisture Content  Test

2.  FFA Content Value

 FFA content the free fatty acid content .It should be 0.2% maximum. For any oil the free fatty acid content value should be of low value. The fats and oil or the triglycerides are digested in to the simplest form of fatty acid and glycerol. But in virgin coconut fatty acid are found freely. Our stomach can not digest fatty acid and thus digested in small intestine and liver. If the content of fatty acid is high, the acidity in digestive cavity can cause irritations. But in virgin coconut oil the Free Fatty Acid content is very low, thus reducing the above risk.

   3. IV  Value test(Iodine Value Test)

  4.   Refractive Index test.

  For this test special equipment called Spectrophotometer is used. Using this experiment, a gas sample is placed on the device and a light ray is passed through it and refractive index is measured.

Process.

There are several methods of production of virgin coconut oil .They are ;

·          

C  COLD PRESS METHOD

·       CENTRIFUGAL  SYSTEM

·   FERMENTATION SYSTEM

Virgin coconut oil can be manufactured at room temperature.

COLD PRESS METHOD

1.       Coconuts are selected .The factors concerned in selecting coconut is the age of coconut. Coconuts should be 3 weeks older after plucking.

2.     The coconuts are husked ,scraped  or shred in to tiny particles.When scraping , only the kernel should be shred and the bran should not be added.

3.    Then the coconuts are dried for 1- 2 hours.For this, dryers can be used .For small scale industries , sun drying can be done for domestic purpose and also dehydration should be done as soon as possible. If not  Salmonella develops on folds , colour changesand begin to sting.If they are dried up to suitable extent , if a coconut particle is pressed from finger tips, oil should  be released.

4.     Then the moisture of coconut scrapings is reduced to 8-10% by placing 3 hours in dryer or in sun and moisture meter is used for measuring the moisture while an oven can be used for domestic industry.

5.    Press the dried coconut oil using the machines ( a modified string hopper mould can also be used.)

6.    Filter the coconut oil.Still the coconut oil is having colour and is yellowish due to suspension of protein.For filtering

·          Filter paper

·         Blotting paper(according to size of coconut folds can be used)

·         a clean cloth        are  suitable.                                                                                                                                                       

* Advantages of Cold Press Method is 300ml of virgin coconut oil can be obtained from 1kg of coconut.

* Cold Press Method is also beneficial as it has no high moisture content like fermented oil and doesn’t become rancid early.

                                                                                   

Machinary

1.SCRAPERS –Either manual or electric scrapers are used  in domestic level while  electric scrapers are used in medium or large scale industries .The function is scraping coconut to very minute shreds without addition of bran.

2.DEHYDRATORS-  Drum Type Rotary Dehydrator.

         Fuel is saw dust and combustion occur here.Water is sent through  a pipe system in the boiler and saw dust is packed inside and subjected to combustion.Then water inside is boiled with no direct contact with saw dust preventing addition of impurities.Then the steam produced is sent  through drum shaped rotary and coconut scraping are made to agitate and moisture is removed. Then remnant coconut scraping is obtained separately.

3.OIL EXTRACTING MACHINARY-      There  are of two sizes of 3 manual equipments.

• ·         Domestic Machine-It can extract oil of only one coconut per once.Thus  it is not efficient.

• ·         Medium Scale Machine 1-It can extract oil of 5/6 coconuts at once.It is suitable for medium scale industries.It is worth Rs 19 000.00 Capacity  is 750g of scraped coconut.

• ·         Medium Scale Machine 2 –It can extract oil of 18 coconuts ,(2.2kg).It also is suitable for  medium scale industry.It is Rs 85000.00 worth.It can be operatd by a hydrolic jak.

  

 4.INDUSTRIAL LEVEL EXTRACTING MACHINE-

                 It runs by single phase current.It can extract oil of capacity of 700 coconuts a day.It needs  an input of  15 kg scraped coconuts a day. It  is operated by a motor.

4.DOUBLE  BOILER-This is used for heating the scraped for 10-15 minutes.

OTHER MATERIALS NEEDED-         Filter papers
                                                    Blotting papers or cotton wool for   
                                                    filtering.       

All the above equipments are unique  innovations of

         NERDC,

           Ekala,

          Ja Ela, 

          Sri Lanka.

                                                          

 

Types of Virgin coconut oil

1. 1.       Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

              This is high  grade ,unrefined ,premium nutritional oil from first cold pressing of coconut.One or two  table spoons a day with meals and salad dressings and as a source of essential fatty acids, free of Trans Fatty Acids and MCFA is high.

1. 2.       Extra Virgin Coconut oil

Cold pressed from young coconut within hours of harvest maintaining freshness,sweetness,

Flavor and scent.

Oil is then filtered and regularly passed generating heat to 180 degree Farenheit

MCFA in virgin coconut oil.

Virgin coconut oil and human breast milk are rich  sources of MCFA.

Percentage composition	Composition	Percentage
Caproic acid	6 : 0	Non detectable-0.7
Caprylic acid	8 : 0	4.6-10.0
Capric  acid	10: 0	5.0-8.0
Lauric acid	12: 0	45.1-53.2
Mysristric acid	14: 0	16.8-21
Palmitic acid	16: 0	7.5-10.2
Palmitoleic acid	16: 1	2-4
Staeric acid	18: 0	5-10
Oleic acid	18: 1	1-2.5
Linoleic acid	18: 3	Non detectable-0.2
Lonolenic acid	24	Non detectable.