CAROTENE DEGRADATION KINETICS OF CAROTENEOIDS-

RICH FAT POWDER MADE FROM RED PALM OIL 1

Arintiara Ramadhyastasari
Dept. of Food Science and
Technology, Faculty of
Agricultural Engineering and
Technology, Bogor Agricultural
University (IPB)
Purwiyatno Hariyadi
Dept. of Food Science and
Technology, Faculty of
Agricultural Engineering and
Technology, Bogor Agricultural
University (IPB), and
Southeast Asian Food and
Agricultural Science and
Technology (SEAFAST) Center,
Bogor Agricultural University
ABSTRACT. Fat powder has many advantages as compared to
that of fat in the form of bulk liquid and/or solid, as it is easier
to be handled for processing purposes. We have developed a
procedure to produce carotenoids-rich fat powder made from
red palm oil. The objective of this study was to investigate the
kinetics of carotene degradation of the resulted fat powder
during storage, using Arrhenius accelerated method. Samples of
fat powder were stored at ambient/room temperature of 26°C
and at elevated temperature of 350C, 400C, dan 550C for 30 days.
The results shows that fat powder carotene degradation follows
the zero-order reaction kinetic and its rate constant increases as
the rising of storage temperature, with calculated activation
energy (Ea) of 53764.49 J/mole. With carotene critical limit 50%
of initial carotene, carotenoids-rich fat powder can be stored for
3 months and 11 days in ambient/room temperature of 26oC.

1. INTRODUCTION provitamin A are α-, β-, and γ-carotene which

Fat powder (Fig. 1) is fat/oil speciality
product that developed to facilitate a wide range
of food processing, such as mixing, handling,
and the efficiency of liquefaction. Compared
with solid fat, fat powder is easier to be handled
and can increase fat distribution in the dough
thus can improve product’s texture, mouth-feel,
and creaminess. It can be made from a variety of
raw materials, including red palm oil.
Red palm oil is known for its high content of
carotene because during manufacturing process,
this product is not subjected to heating at high
temperature and bleaching processes. Crude
palm oil is reported to contain 642 ppm of
carotenoids [3] meanwhile red palm oil and palm
stearin reported to contain 533 ppm [5] and 359
ppm[2] of carotenoids respectively. Carotenoids
serve as a provitamin A in human body which
contribute to prevention of blindness,
cardiovascular, and improvement of body
immunity. Carotenoids that can be used as
have vitamin A activity 50-54%, 100%, and 42-
50% respectively. Because it has the highest
vitamin A activity, β-carotene become the
carotenoid that commonly used as the source of
vitamin A[6].
Consequently, red palm oil may be used as
ingredient to help reduce vitamin A deficiency
problem in Indonesia which has a prevalence
rate of 0.33%.
Red palm oil used is palm stearin. The
utilization of palm stearin as the raw material of
carotenoids-rich fat powder is considered very
profitable because it can increase the economic
and added value of palm stearin. In food
industry, palm stearin is used as ingredients in a
wide range of food products, including
shortening, pastry and bakery margarine, nut
butter, and confectionery.

1
Paper presented at The 21st Tri-University International Joint orSeminar and Symposium (2014
November 2-7), Chiang-Mai, Thailand.

Fig. 1 Fat powder
The procedure to produce carotenoids-rich
fat powder made from red palm oil has been
developed. However, the kinetics of carotene
degradation during storage of the fat powder
was not yet known. Hence, this study aims to
investigate the kinetics of carotene degradation
of the carotenoids-rich fat powder during
storage, using Arrhenius accelerated method.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 Materials
The materials used in the making of
carotenoids-rich fat powder are neutralized
deodorized red palm stearin (NDRPS) and fully
hydrogenated palm oil (FHPO), and material
used for carotene analysis is hexane p.a.
2.2 Ingredients characterization
The carotene content[1] of fully hydrogenated
palm oil and neutralized deodorized red palm
stearin were analyzed to find out the
characteristics of the raw materials used.
2.3 RPO fat powder production
Carotenoids-rich fat powder is made using
spray chiller (Fig. 2) with the operation status as
follows, spray heater temperature 80°C, feed
heater temperature 80°C, chiller temperature
14°C, inlet temperature 18-19°C, exhaust
temperature 29-30°C, feed pump 15.0 Hz, air
pressure 0.6 bar, and feed pressure 0.62+0.01
bar. This settings are based on the research
which has been done by Anriansyah[2] but with
a little modification. Both ingredients, NDRPS
(neutralized deodorized red palm stearin) and
FHPO (fully hydrogenated palm oil), must be
heated at the temperature of 50-60°C until it
melts perfectly before into the spray chiller.
Ingredients ratio used are 80% for FHPO and 20%
for NDRPS.
Fig. 2 Spray chiller
2.4 Investigation of carotene degradation
kinetics of carotenoids-rich fat powder
Carotene degradation kinetics is done by
using Arrhenius accelerated method. Samples of
fat powder were stored at temperature of 350C,
400C, dan 550C for 30 days. Control storage was
done at ambient/room temperature of 26°C.
Carotene analysis of fat powder were done for
every 10 days and the carotene degradation
kinetics investigated using Arrhenius equation.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Carotenoids-rich fat powder was made using
palm stearin and fully hydrogenated palm oil
(FHPO). Palm stearin used here is neutralized
deodorized palm stearin (NDRPS) in which not
subjected to bleaching process so its carotene
content remains high. The results of ingredients
characterization step shows that neutralized
deodorized palm stearin contains 346.8 ppm of
carotene meanwhile fully hydrogenated palm oil
only contains 2.9 ppm of carotene (Table 1).
This data shows that the carotene contained in
fat powder is mainly derived from neutralized
deodorized palm stearin.
The making of carotenoids-rich fat powder
started with melting both ingredients at the
temperature of 50-60°C then mixing it until it
homogeneous. After that, ingredients are put
into the spray chiller where the liquid raw
materials will be turned into powder form. The
resulted fat powder then stored at ambient/room
temperature of 26°C, and temperature of 35°C,
40°C, and 55°C to see its carotene degradation
trend during storage. The main factors that
affect carotene content during food processing
and storaging are the structure changes by heat
and the oxidation by air oxygen. Carotene is
very sensitive to oxydation because it has
double bond[5].
decrease from 56.4 ppm to 48.8 ppm. These
carotene content decreases shows that there is a
rise of the rate of carotene degradation during
storage due to the rise of storage temperature.
Temperature is known as one of the factor that
affect the rate of chemical reaction[5]. The rate
of carotene degradation in carotenoids-rich fat
powder stored at four different temperatures
follows the zero-order reaction which means
this carotene degradation rate does not depend
on the reactant concentration[5].

70
Table 1. Ingredients carotene content
60 y = -0.2419x + 56.397
Ingredients used in this Carotene R² = 0.9695
study (ppm) 50

Carotene content
y = -0.4773x + 56.3974
NDRPS (Neutralized 40 R² = 0.9500

(ppm)
Deodorized Red Palm 346.8
30 y = -1.1105x + 56.3974 Room
Stearin)
R² = 0.9548
FHPO (Fully 35
20
2.9 40
Hydrogenated Palm Oil)
10
y = -1.5780x + 56.3974 55
R² = 0.9590
The degradation of carotene content of the 0
0 20 40
resulted carotenoids-rich fat powder can be seen
Storage time (day)
in Figure 3. At the end of the 30 days storage,
carotene content of fat powder stored at Fig. 3 Fat powder carotene degradation during
temperature of 35°C , 40°C, and 55°C decrease storage at temperature of 26°C, 35°C, 40°C,
from 56.4 ppm to 43.4 ppm, 32.6 ppm, and 12.8
and 55°C
ppm respectively while carotene content of fat
powder stored at ambient temperature of 26°C
The equation for zero-order reaction of fat 35 -0.48
powder carotene degradation in Table 2 shows
that fat powder stored at temperature of 55°C 40 -1.11
has the highest reaction rate constant by 55 -1.58
1.58/day, followed by fat powder stored at
temperature of 40°C and 35°C which have
reacion rate constant of 1.11/day and 0.48/day Carotene degradation rate constants obtained
respectively. In the meantime, fat powder stored then converted into the natural numbers of
logarithm (Ln k) and plotted with 1/temperature
at ambient/room (26°C) have 0.24/day reaction
(in Kelvin) to get the Arrhenius equation (Fig.
rate constant. This data indicates that carotene
4). So that the relation between temperature,
degradation rate increases as the rising of
reaction rate constant, and activation energy can
storage temperature.
be studied.
The Arrhenius equation generated (Eq.(1))
Table 2. Equation for zero-order carotene
from Fig. 4 shows that the carotene degradation
degradation during storage of carotenoids-rich
reaction of carotenoids-rich fat powder has
fat powder
activation energy of 53764.49 J/mole (Table 3).
Zero-order rate
Temperature It is higher than the activation energy of
constant (k)
(°C) carotene degradation of red palm oil
[ppm.day-1]
microencapsulate from study conducted by
26 -0.24 Novia in 2009, which is 19995.17 J/mole[6].
Higher activation energy indicates that carotene
degradation of carotenoids-rich fat powder is
more sensitive to temperature increases during
storage compared with carotene degradation of
red palm oil microencapsulate.
Ln k = 20.3505 – 6466.7419 (1/T)
1.0
0.5
The value of k can be generated by inserting
the assumed storage temperature, fot example at
26°C (299 K), into Arrhenius equation (Eq.1).
With initial carotene quality of 56.4 ppm, and
assuming that carotene critical limit is 28.2 ppm
(50% of initial carotene content), and the value
(Eq. 1) of k = 0.2788, obtained that carotenoids-rich fat
powder can be stored for 101 days or 3 months
and 11 days. If stored at 20°C (293 K), the
predicted shelf life of the carotenoids-rich fat
powder is 157 days or 5 months and 7 days.

0.0 4. CONCLUSION
0.0030 0.0031 0.0032 0.0033 0.0034 Carotene degradation of carotenoids-rich fat
powder may be explained using zero-order
Ln K

-0.5
reaction kinetics, with activation energy of
-1.0 53764.49 J/mole. Assuming that the end of shelf
y = -6,466.7419x + 20.3505 life is defined as product having 50% of initial
R² = 0.8912
-1.5 carotene, carotenoids-rich fat powder predicted
can be stored for 3 months and 11 days in
-2.0 ambient/room temperature and if stored at 20°C,
1/T (K)
the predicted shelf life of the carotenoids-rich
fat powder is 157 days or 5 months and 7 days.
Fig. 4 The change of carotene degradation rate
constant of carotenoids-rich fat powder
5. REFERENCES
[1] [PORIM]. Palm Oil Research Institute of
Malaysia. (1995). Porim Test Methods.
Table 3. Activation energy of carotene
Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia.
degradation of carotenoids-rich fat powder
[2] Anriansyah I. (2013). Pengembangan
Gas
produk fat powder berbasis minyak sawit
consta
Temperatu Ea merah [Thesis]. Bogor (ID): Bogor
Slope nt
re (J/mol) Agricultural University.
(/mol
[3] Insani DD. (2011). Karakterisasi minyak
K)
sawit kasar selama penyimpanan dan
Accelerate pengaliran [Thesis]. Bogor (ID): Bogor
-
d 8.31 53764.49
6466.74 Agricultural University.
storage test [4] Kilcast D. and Subramaniam P. (Eds.).
(2000). The Stability and Shelf-life of Food.
Arrhenius equation (Eq.(1)) also can be used In Wulan A. C., Kinetika oksidasi termal
to predict the shelf life of carotenoids-rich fat minyak goreng sawit curah dengan
powder. Because the carotene degradation of fortifikasi minyak sawit merah (p. 14)
carotenoids-rich fat powder follows the zero- [Thesis]. Bogor (ID): Bogor Agricultural
order kinetics so shelf life of carotenoids-rich fat University.
powder at particular storage temperature can be [5] Muchtaridi and Justina S. (2006). Kimia 2.
predicted using the following equation[4]:. Jakarta (ID): Yudhistira.
Q -Q
[6] Novia S. (2009). Stabilitas mikroenkapsulat
ts = ok t (Eq. 2) minyak sawit merah hasil pengeringan lapis
Where t is period of storage (day), Qo is an tipis selama penyimpanan [Thesis]. Bogor
initial quality, Qt is an accepted final quality, (ID): Bogor Agricultural University.
and kis a reaction rate constant.
 Professor of Food Processing
Undergraduate student
and Engineering, Dept. of
Majoring in Food Science
Food Science and
and Technology,
Technology, Faculty of
Department of Food
Agricultural Engineering and
Science and Technology,
Technology, Bogor
Faculty of Agricultural
Arintiara
Purwiyatno Agricultural University (IPB),
Engineering and
Ramadhyastasari Technology, Bogor Hariyadi And
Director of Southeast Asian
Agricultural University
Food and Agricultural Science
(IPB)
and Technology (SEAFAST)
Center, Bogor Agricultural
University (IPB).