Fracionamento da banha suína para alteração da viscosidade

Abstract

Fractionation consists of melting the fat, cooling it in a controlled manner and separating the fractions. The objective of this work was to apply the fractionation technique in swine lard to reduce the viscosity and to allow the product to present fluid at room temperature. A flowchart of the process was constructed from the monitoring of the stages of production of swine lard in a processing industry, for understanding and description of the process. After the description, samples were collected for further analysis. The fat of the fused swine was collected in a storage silo within the industry before the abruption phase of temperature reduction, to apply the fractionation technique. The controlled cooling aims at the formation of large crystals that will separate from the other fraction of the fat that has a smaller melting point and will not crystalalize, being achieved from a low cooling rate of the samples. The filtration is applied for separation of the liquid fraction that is in the solid medium, being the Olein (low melting point) and stearin (high melting point), respectively. The yield of the two distinct fractions was calculated to estimate the yield. After being separated, the olein was characterized by analysis of acidity index, peroxides index and saponification index, still aiming the characterization of the fraction obtained and verification of the process efficiency, was performed analyses of Viscosity, melting point and analysis of fatty acid composition by gas chromatography of liquid fraction and gross sample. The results for the analysis of Acidity index and peroxides index were within the standards established by the Codex Alimentarius, but for the saponification index the value presented below the indicated being explained by the presence in greater Proportion of high molecular weight fatty acids in the sample. The samples after fracted were presented with low value for viscosity and melting point. For the result of the analysis of fatty acids composition, there was a reduction in the proportion of saturated fatty acids and an increase in the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids.