Vacuum-assisted Stirring Extraction: A Study on Production and Quality of Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO)

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is one of the coconut derivative products with a high value due to its versatility. Various VCO extraction methods have been developed, but conventional methods such as stirring, usually used by small and medium industries, are time-consuming and have low yields. One of the concepts to assist the extraction of the oil from the kernel is vacuum pressure. Nevertheless, related research on applying vacuum-assisted extraction of virgin coconut oil was limited. This study aims to determine the effect of selected factors on the cell destruction and demulsification process. Two separate experiments were conducted using a factorial randomized completed block design and a two-level factorial design. The yield produced in this experiment varied (14.4 – 21.4%), as well as the water content (0.08 – 0.40%), while the peroxide value was constant (0.00). This research showed that the stirring speed factor and its interaction with vacuum pressure in grated coconut significantly affect the yield. Nevertheless, the vacuum pressure factor has no significant effect. Furthermore, all factors did not influence the quality of VCO significantly. In demulsification process intervention, the interaction between vacuum pressure and stirring time decreased yield significantly—besides, all three factors and their interaction were significant to moisture content