Commercial Process For Low-Cholesterol ITHACA, N.Y.— Cornell Uni versity food scientists have improved a process to remove cholesterol from milk to the point where they say it is commercially viable. They have developed a continuous process that can remove 90 percent of the choles terol in milk by forcing carbon dioxide through the fat in milk at pressures more than 1,300 times that found in the average automo bile tire. The highly efficient technique - similar to die one used to decaf feinate coffee - opens the way for producing low-cholesterol milk and other dairy products such as butter, ice cream, cheese and yogurt. The Cornell researchers plan discussions with dairy indus try representatives to further deve lop the technique. The process, known as “super critical fluid extraction,” could have a worldwide impact on thw dairy industry, according to food scientist Syed S.H. Rizvi, who so far has applied it only on a laborat ory scale. He is a professor of food engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at UUiiK FEED BINS We Will Assemble And Deliver Bins To Tent hml We Stock Truckloads Of Chore-Time Bins & Miles Of Chore-Time FLEX-AUGER® Get The Complete System - Feeding, Ventilation, Watering From Your Authorized Master Distributor Li'i.iL-rUi agrl systems Cornell. Rizvi said that the process could be used to remove most of the cholesterol from milk fat, so that the decholesterolized butter fat then could be added back to skim milk to create low cholesterol milk or used as a major component for making other low cholesterol milk products. These might include butter, ice cream or cheese. “What makes our process parti cularly exciting is that it not only reduces cholesterol by 90 percent, but also recovers up to 85 percent of decholesterolized butterfat,” Rizvi said. “If we had gotten only a few pounds of decholesterolized fat from 100 pounds of butterfat pro cessed, the yield would have been too low to make any economic sense,” he pointed out. The Cornell research group is not the only one developing super critical extraction for cholesterol removal, Rizvi pointed out. Sever al companies also are experiment ing with the method, but have apparently not yet reported a high yield, continuous process that NORTHEAST AGRI SYSTEMS, INC. FLYWAY BUSINESS PARK 139 A West Airport Rd. \ 7 Lititz, PA 17543 (717) 569-2702 matches the Cornell technology. These companies include Super critical Processing Inc. of Allen town, Pa., and Phasex Corp. of Lawrence, Mass. Perhaps more importantly, the patent office of Japan recently dis closed that the Food Research Society of Higashimura City near Tokyo has applied for a Japanese patent on a similar technique for cholesterol removal, Rizvi said. The independently developed Japanese method reportedly can reduce the cholesterol level in but terfat by nearly 84 percent, with about 87 percent recovery of the decholesterolized fat. The patent application cites a 1986 paper entitled “Modification of Butter Oil by Extraction with Supercriti cal Carbon Dioxide” published in the journal Agricultural and Bio logical Chemistry by scientists from Tohoku University in Sen dai, Japan. Rizvi said the Japanese tech nique is reported to use slightly different materials and conditions for the extraction process, but also could be economical. CHORE-TIME The feed bin is the very heart of any feeding system if the bin lets you down, the system quits. That’s why we put so many quality features into our Complete line of feed bins - which includes 6-foot diameter steel or poly ethylene (great for H.M. com), 6-foot, 7-foot, and 9-foot models. All are avail able in several capacities - so you have a wide selection of bins to fit your needs. Here are just a few of the quality features that make our bins such an outstanding buy: • Sturdy Ladder System • All Bin Seams Are Double Caulked Choice of 16 or 25 Inch Hopper Opening • All Galvanized Steel Parts “We see the two independently STORE HOURS; Mon.-FH. 7:30-4:30 Sal 8:00-11:30 Milk Developed At Cornell developed methods as confirma tion that the supercritical fluid extraction is viable, and it encour ages us to proceed as quickly as possible to develop the process for commercialization,” he said. Riz vi added that the Japanese patent application does not interfere with plans to commercialize the Cor nell technique. Rizvi explained that, in his pro cess, cholesterol is removed by injecting carbon dioxide into but terfat under high pressure, up to 4,000 pounds per square inch, at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Under such a pres sure, carbon dioxide becomes “neither a gas nor a liquid, but a supercritical fluid,” as he calls it When the high-pressure carbon dioxide is passed through a batch of butterfat, it picks up cholesterol along with some fat (triglycer ides). The cholesterol-laden “gas” moves into a second unit where the pressure and temperature, among other conditions, are mani pulated in such a way that the car bon dioxide releases the choles terol. ‘This second stage of the opera tion is critical because this is where cholesterol is removed selectively,” Rizvi said. The supercritical carbon diox ide, still carrying some choles terol-reduced fat, flows into a third vessel held at atmospheric pressure, where it becomes gase ous and dissipates, leaving behind fat (triglycerides). With most of its cholesterol now gone, the decholesterolized components of butterfat in the first and third vessels are collected to make low-fat milk, butter, cheese and other milk products with little cholesterol. The process also separates but terfat’s major constituents - tri glycerides - into two parts: one that stays solid at room tempera ture and the other that is liquid. These fats can be collected sepa rately after the process. “By using more low-melting triglycerides than high-melting ones, it may be possible to pro duce a more spreadable butter,” said Rizvi, who plans to use the technique to reduce cholesterol from other animal fats such as beef tallow and lard. He is deve loping such low-cholesterol and more spreadable butter and other dairy products. Rizvi said that reducing the cholesterol in butterfat should not affect the flavor, taste and nutri tive value of milk and dairy products. He also said that the continuous nature of his supercritical extrac tion process means that it is possi ble to process butterfat in com mercial quantities cost-effec tively. The prototype laboratory scale apparatus can handle only small amounts of butterfat for Farmers Paired According To Manure Status LANCASTER The Lancas ter Conservation District is com piling a list of people in Lancaster County who have manure to sell or give away and those who would like manure for their land. Based on data recently compiled by the District, nearly all townships within the county have some farms with excess manure. How ever, most farms could use more manure on their cropland. A pair ing of those farms with excess with those who need more will reduce pollution of streams and groundwater and will also reduce die need for chemical fertilizer LancMfr Farming, Saturday, April 8,1988-A37 experimental purposes, but the Cornell researchers are now plan ning to scale up the system to pro cess the materials in large quantities. Whole milk contains about 3.3 percent butterfat, which consists of saturated and unsaturated fats in the form of triglycerides, plus phospholipids and cholesterol. They account for about 130 grams per gallon. In turn, about 0.4 per cent of the butterfat in milk, or about 532 milligrams per gallon, is cholesterol. This white, odorless fatty substance long has been implicated as causing plaque in arteries, which can produce heart disease. By adding decholesterolized butterfat to skim milk, the Cornell researchers already have made decholesterolized 2 percent milk. Two percent milk contains only 2 percent butterfat compared with 3.3 percent in whole milk. Also popular is 1 percent milk. David K. Handler, a professor of food science and an expert on milk quality, helped Rizvi evalu ate the low-cholesterol 2 percent milk. According to Handler, Riz vi’s technique can be used to tailor-make a variety of low cholesterol dairy products. He predicted that sales of milk and other dairy products with low cholesterol levels “could increase greatly in competition with other types of beverages.” In 1987, the average American drank 20.7 gallons of milk as a beverage, 3.3 gallons less than in 1965. This compares with the per capita consumption of soft drinks at 43.4 gallons, coffee at 25.3 gal lons and beer at 23.9 gallons. Rizvi said that, although the supercritical fluid extraction pro- cess is not new, researchers only recently have recognized the importance of this technology. The technique is now used to decaffeinate coffee and to obtain hops extracts that give beer its characteristic bitter flavor; researchers have long hoped to discover other food-processing applications. The method now used to decaf feinate coffee beans is basically the same as the cholesterol removal process devised at Cor nell. Rizvi’s achievement was to optimize the precise operating conditions and develop other criti cal steps required for the efficient removal of cholesterol from but terfat with high recovery of the usable product. He developed the cholesterol removal system with a team of other Cornell researchers, includ ing postdoctoral fellows Hakim Benkrid and Roy Chao and gradu ate students Betsy Tse and Abigail Honer. His research has been sup ported in part by the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board. • inputs. It is the goal of the District to help farmers get together to solve problems locally and voluntarily. If you have extra manure or could use some more on your farm, please call the Lancaster Conservation District at 717/299-5361. Information needed is farm location, type of manure, quantity of manure, and time of the year available. When two people in the area can be matched, the District will contact both parties. Details such as con ditions of sale can then be worked out between the two parties.
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