Influência da presença de contaminantes físicos na pressão dos filtros tipo bolsa da lecitina e do óleo refinado de soja

Abstract

Soybean is a grain with the capability of providing many products, among the main are refined soybean oil and lecithin. Considering that the production of these products is mostly for human consumption, several requirements are mandatory with regard to food safety in order to avoid product contamination and harm to the consumer. The most common systems applied to avoid possible food contamination the methodology of HACCP, where CCPs are applied (critical control points), which are decisive steps for reducing or eliminating possible contamination. In this study, both for oil and for the lecithin, were characterized as CCPs the final stages of production that include the filtering, as being a measurement used to control physical hazards, as they are fluid. This study was to evaluate the efficiency of these controls by monitoring the pressures and testing specimens in these filtering steps and observe the influence on the values of filter pressure. Refined oil did not shows relevant variations, keeping the pressure constant during filtration. Lecithin showed variations in pressure during the tests but cannot be effectively assigned to the specimens because the variations are quite similar with filtering without specimens.