Análises de gorduras hidrogenadas com diferentes graus de insaturação

Abstract

The hydrogenation process of vegetable oils allows obtaining different consistencies of products such as margarine, fat and other semi-solid products, which are more stable to oxidation when compared to vegetable oils. Vegetable oils have unsaturated fatty acids in their constitution, while the fats in the major fatty acids are saturated, thus justifying physical and chemical differences between substances. At room temperature are liquid vegetable oils and fats are solid and the greater the degree of saturation of the fatty acids, the higher the melting point of the fat. The present study aimed to monitor the hydrogenation reaction, performed with different flow rates of hydrogen gas for three types of fats hydrogenation degree of low, medium and high, evaluating changes in refractive index, iodine and drop point. The results showed the impossibility of using only the index of refraction as quality control of the hydrogenation process studied.