Oil cakes with different raw materials

Mar 22, 2022

Different oil-containing raw materials, according to their own characteristics, the oil cake obtained after pressing will also have different uses. In general, oilseeds cultivated mainly for oil extraction are rapeseed and sunflower, for proteins is soybean and for fibers is cotton. They undergo preprocessing before pressing, such as: cleaning, dehulling and roasting (destruction of microorganism and oil cell, enzymes inactivation, coagulation of proteins), and then are subjected to oil extraction. Each phase of those process generates more or less waste with residual bioactive compounds that can be recovered.

The two traditional methods to extract oil involve either the use of a mechanical press (hot and cold pressing) or a solvent. When the process is mechanical, the oilseeds are heated (around 100-120 degrees) and the oil is extracted with a screw oil press. Alternately, in cold pressing, the temperature of heating is kept at 60–80 degrees. After the extraction of oil from seeds, the principal by-product obtained is oil cakes. They are classified into two categories—edible and non-edible. And today, we will focus on edible oil cakes:

The oil cake of oybean, groundnut, rapeseed, sunflower, coconut, safflower and flaxseed have a high nutritional value and can be used in animal and human consumption as processed ingredients (protein concentrate), a substrate (in the production of bioactive compounds) and source of antioxidants. The highest content in proteins was found in groundnut cake then soybean, almond, chia, rapeseed, sunflower, cottonseed, pumpkin, hemp, safflower, sesame, coconut, flaxseed and olive oilcakes.

In conclusion, the most oily raw materials, apart from their most basic benefits: to obtain oil, their dross can also be well utilized to maximize earnings.