Influence of storage conditions on the quality of virgin coconut oil produced by the non-heating technology

Abstract

In this study, virgin coconut oil (VCO) was extracted by non-heating technology to select 02 samples: Sample O1 taken after centrifugation (not yet dried, vacuum filtration) and sample O2 taken after drying, vacuum filtration. The influence factors, such as packing (glass bottle and plastic bottle), quality of plastic bottle, light, and temperature, that affect the quality of the VCO in the process of 12-month preservation were evaluated through indexs as follows: moisture, free fatty acid (FFA) that represents the process of rancidity by hydrolysis, peroxide value (PV) that represents the process of rancidity by oxidation, and organoleptic indicators to evaluate the quality of VCO. The results showed that the factors as mentioned above had a direct impact on the quality of VCO, especially the moisture of VCO contained in different packing materials. Therefore, using brown glass bottles or blue PET bottles with thickness ≥ 0.5 mm showed better results compared with colorless glass and PET bottles, while PET bottles with thickness of 0.2 mm and HDPE bottles reduced the VCO quality in preservation process. From the experiment of determining the effect of preservation temperature (15^o C, 27^o C, and 37^o C) on VCO sample O2 which was packed in brown glass bottles (P1n) and blue PET bottles (P2x) on the basis of determining indexs such as: FFA, PV, and organoleptic indicators (level of limpidity, color, and taste), it was indicated that preservation at normal temperature was feasible but keeping at 15-27 ^oC was the best, and the quality of VCO after 12-month presevation still met the standards of APCC.