Refined edible oil having high beneficial constituents and methods for refining thereof

1. A method for producing refined rice bran oil comprising the steps of:

determining the amount of free fatty acids in a rice bran oil;

calculating an amount of a caustic treatment that is less than or equal to a theoretical amount of caustic required to neutralize all of the free fatty acids in the rice bran oil; and

neutralizing the free fatty acids with the amount of caustic treatment that is less than or equal to the theoretical amount of caustic required to neutralize all of the free fatty acids in the rice bran oil.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the caustic treatment is selected from the group consisting of one or more of the chemicals consisting of sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, TSP, sodium silicate, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the caustic treatment is selected from sodium hydroxide and TSP solution.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the caustic treatment is an amount that is effective to neutralize 95.5% or more of the free fatty acid in the rice bran oil.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein neutralizing the free fatty acids comprises the steps of:

conducting a first neutralization step with an amount of caustic treatment that is less than the theoretical amount of caustic required to neutralize all of the free fatty acids in the rice bran oil such that residual free fatty acids remain in the rice bran oil, and

conducting a second neutralization step with an amount of caustic treatment that is sufficient to neutralize essentially all of the remaining free fatty acids in the rice bran oil.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the amount of caustic treatment in the second neutralization step is sufficient to neutralize the remaining free fatty acids to a level that is equivalent to no more than 5% or less of the free fatty acid content of the rice bran oil.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the amount of caustic treatment in the second neutralization step is sufficient to neutralize the remaining free fatty acids to a level that is from about 0.20 to 0.05% of the free fatty acid content of the rice bran oil.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the caustic treatment in the second neutralization step uses a weak solution of alkali and the amount of weak solution of alkali is sufficient to neutralize the residual free fatty acids to 0.01% or less.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the weak solution of alkali is selected from a group consisting of TSPc, tri-sodium phosphate, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, ammonium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate and ammonium bicarbonate.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the weak solution of alkali is TSPc solution.

11. The method of claim 1 or 5 wherein AB-6B indicator is used to determine the amount of free fatty acids in the rice bran oil.

12. The method of claim 1 or 5 wherein the amount of free fatty acid in the rice bran oil is determined by (1) measuring the oryzanol content of the oil, (2) measuring the total acid content of the oil using phenolphthalien, thymolphthalein, bromothyolblue or alpha-naphtyl benzene and (3) subtracting the oryzanol content from the total acid content to obtain the working free fatty acid content plus added free acid.

13. The method according to claim 1 or 5 further including the steps of:

taking at least one grab sample during the neutralization step;

analyzing the content of the oryzanol in the grab sample via spectrophotometer or High Performance Liquid Chromatography; and

analyzing the free fatty acid content of the grab sample via titration method.

14. A refined rice bran oil made according to any of the methods of claims 1 - 10 further including the step further including a deodorization step.