Solid fat from fractionation of palm-based products was converted into cake shortening at different processing conditions. High oleic palm stearin with an oleic content of 48.2 % was obtained from fractionation of high oleic palm oil which was produced locally. Palm product was blended with different soft oils at pre-determined ratio and further fractionated to obtain the solid fractions. These fractions were then converted into cake shortenings named as high oleic, N1 and N2 blends. The physico-chemical properties of the experimental shortenings were compared with those of control shortenings in terms of fatty acid composition (FAC), iodine value (IV), slip melting point (SMP), solid fat content (SFC) and polymorphic forms. Unlike the imported commercial shortenings as reported by other studies and the control, experimental shortenings were trans-free. The SMP and SFC of experimental samples, except for the N2 sample, fell within the ranges of commercial and control shortenings. The IV was higher than those of domestic shortenings but lower when compared to imported and control shortenings. They were also observed to be b tending even though a mixture of b and b was observed in the samples after 3 months of storage. The shortenings were also used in the making of pound cake and sensory evaluation showed the good performance of high oleic sample as compared to the other shortenings.

Short-path distillation (SPD) has been a technique used to purify products containing monoacylglycerols (MAG), diacylglycerols (DAG), etc. Palm oil and its fractions contain high contents of DAG, typically 5-8%, some of which have significant effects on the crystallization behavior of the fats. A possible way of reducing the DAG to lower levels using SPD is evaluated. Distillation of refined, bleached and deodorized palm olein was performed at different temperatures (220-250 7C) and flow rates (500 and 1000 g/h). Feed oil, residue oil and distillates were characterized in terms of composition and melting and cooling behavior. The DAG content of the feed oil was 6.5%. At high evaporating temperatures, the free fatty acid (FFA) concentration in the residue oil and the distillate oil decreased for the same flow rate. Increasing the feed flow rate while maintaining constant temperature led to a greater FFA concentration in both streams. The DAG content in the distillate increased at higher temperature, reaching 68% at 250 7C, while the residue oil achieved a level of 2.8% at lower flow feeding rates. Melting and cooling behavior were influenced by the composition of DAG and triacylglycerols. Thus, the distillate oils had higher melting profiles in contrast to the feed oil and the residue oil, which had similar profiles despite the removal of highermelting components.

objective of our study and the publication was to provide information on characteristics and composition of a high oleic oil obtained through the process of interesterifying palm oil with methyl oleate. Because of the newly developed biodiesel industry, palm-based methyl ester is readily available. For our work, methyl oleate was purchased; we did not conduct fractional distillation of palm methyl ester. The full process of starting from basic oil to methyl ester, followed by distillation was therefore not included, nor mentioned, but we expected interested parties would likely look into the full process if the industry has palm biodiesel product, or one may just start from appropriate raw materials. The reacted ester recovered from the process has many potential applications in biodiesel and oleochemical industries. It can also be recycled. All of these aspects were considered in our work in order to enhance the economic viability of the process, although not mentioned, because the paper was not written as a result of a graduate student thesis.Concerning Table 1. Dijkstra has rightly pointed out that columns 4 and 5, showing values for FAME before and after mixing, do not accurately show the composition of the 50:50 blend of palm olein and methyl oleate and that this is due to incompleteness of the reaction in the analysis of FAME, especially when methyl oleate was present in the mixture. These two columns were inadvertently placed into the table by mistake and we did not discuss the values in the two columns. The discussion was based on comparing the feed oil and the high-oleic oil obtained. From the table, the high-oleic palm oil (HOPO) composition did not deviate too far from the calculated average mixture.When discussing the results of the fatty acid compositions before and after randomization, we actually referred to the comparison of the feed oil and the HOPO, and not to the data from the two columns representing before and after reaction.For FAME preparation, the sample size was about 0.05 g. The reagent used was 0.5 M sodium methoxide and is therefore a liquid. We did not mention the details for preparing sodium methoxide because it is a commonly known reagent prepared from sodium metal and methanol. The mixture separated into two layers when water was added.The standard deviations of Tables 1 and 5 were generally higher than those of Tables 3 and 6. This is because data from Tables 1 and 5 were from pilot plant experiments, while Tables 3 and 6 were from laboratory experiments. The variability in the pilot-plant experiments was higher than in the laboratory experiments where better control can be achieved. The laboratory experiments were included at a later stage when requested by the reviewers