What are the microbiological risks with Pure Soybean Oil?

My company is going to install a silo for bulk soybean oil to be used as an ingredient for cakes in a bakery. I am working on traceability for this process and I want to know if there are any microbiological risks that exist or have a potential to exist in pure soybean oil. I have reviewed the FDA site and seached for recalls involving soybean oil and I have yet to find anything resulting in a food safety concern other than labeling issues. I am interested in the microbiological risks at this time. If anyone has good informtion out there concerning this please share!

Dear Kevinar,

Not my area but these extracts may be a useful starter -

Refined Vegetable Oils
Refining of vegetable oils is a well established process used throughout the world. The low water activity and high fat content in refined vegetable oils results in near zero microbiological activity. The raw material, vegetable oil, is a natural, non-toxic product. Additives may be added to the refined oils. A manual nitrogen purge may be used. The finished product is 100% vegetable oil with 0% moisture.
The final product pH is neutral and has a 0% soap value. The oil does oxidize quickly and nitrogen is used to blanket all containers to minimize oxidation. The product shelf life is dependent on the type of seed and varies from 6 months to 2 years.

( Product Information - NON-GMO Soybean Oil.pdf   190.96KB   194 downloads )

And

The refined oils used are normally free of microbial contamination as a result of the refining process,which involves steaming at a temperature well above 100◦C. The oil has a very low-moisture content of <0.1% and will thus not allow microbial growth.

(Micro-organisms in Foods Vol.6)

Presumably, post-refining contamination is not ruled out.

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Kevinar

You can be reasonably assured of the microbiological stability of refined oils and fats.

Just to illustrate the point, I searched the EU's Commission (DG SANCO) database for alerts, recalls and withdrawals and there has been no microbial issue reported for Soya-bean oil. These records dates back to 1998. Issues with oils are dominated by organoleptic and chemical contaminants (Dioxins etc).

You can browse the RASFF Portal if you have the time. You will find it a great validating source for your HACCP analysis. Just select Oils and Fats in the product criteria field.

RASFF Portal


George

And what about the survival of sporesforming microorganisms? Any informaiton?

Interesting on the spore formers.

 

https://olivecenter....afety120511.pdf

 

I would think the likelihood of spore forming bacteria is pretty small in the oil refining process, but honestly not a subject I've researched.

 

Make sure that bulk silo of soybean oil has a nitrogen blanket in the headspace to keep it from oxidizing...

JFI there is an extremely detailed BCPA Product Specification for "Fully Refined Soybean OIL" here -

 

https://www.ifsqn.co...ard/#entry89352

 

The micro bit is  -

 

refined soybean oil.PNG   45.12KB   0 downloads

 

Useful but perhaps slightly self- contradictory ? Maybe the spec. is also  allowing for any "conceivable"  post-processing "contamination".

 

PS - these additional specs are also somewhat contrasting, micro-wise -

 

SB1 - Product Information - NON-GMO,Refined, Soybean Oil.pdf   190.89KB   27 downloads

SB2 - Refined Soya-Bean-Oil-Specification,2016.pdf   273.82KB   40 downloads

 

PPS - some stated refined vegetable oils clearly do contain  micro. contaminants -

 

Microbial_Contamination of Refined-Unrefined Vegetable Oils,2018.pdf   204.44KB   73 downloads