Redução da micragem do elemento filtrante no processo produtivo de lecitina de soja e avaliação dos impactos no percentual de matérias estranhas no produto final

Abstract

Among the products departing from soybeans is soybean lecithin, a natural product of amber coloration, formed through the process of drying the gum, after the degummation of the crude oil. The soybean lecithin is widely used in the food industry, both animal and human, as a dispersing and emulsifying agent. To market a product as an additive in the food industry, it is necessary to ensure that it is safe for consumption and, one of the parameters of quality and safety is the amount of foreign material contained in the product. The National Health Surveillance Agency calls as foreign material any material that is not constituent of the product, and estabilish limits and methods to ensure the according. In the case of the manufacturing of soybean lecithin, the industries use filter elements to retain foreign material that may come from the raw material and/or the process itself. The retention capacity of such filter elements varies according to the micrage of the same, that is, the lower the micrage, the greater the retention capacity. As the product in question is a high viscosity fluid, in the process of circulation by filters, in addition to retaining impurities effectively, it must be ensured that the filter will not be ruptured due to the pressure that the fluid exerts during filtration. To express the impact of reducing the micrage of the filter element on the amount of foreign matter on the final product, we used the method standardized by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) to quantify the total insoluble matter in hydrochloric acid in soybean lecithin samples that circulated in filters with pores equivalent to 200 micrometers and, subsequently, 100 micrometers. It was also considered the impacts of reduction in the operation of the production process, such as the time required to circulate 24 Tons of soybean lecithin and the pressure on the filters to ensure that the filter elements were not broken.