Cholesterol oxidation in tallow during processing

Abstract The oxidation of cholesterol during the bleaching and deodorization process of tallow was studied. Eight polar cholesterol oxidation products were targeted, but only cholest-5-en-3β,7β-diol (7β-HC) and 5β, 6β-epoxy-5β-cholestan-3β-ol (β-CE) could be quantified in the samples analysed. The content of 7β-HC was slightly higher in the processed tallow (0.6–0.7 μg/g) compared with natural tallow (0.2 μg/g). However, the content of β-CE was considerably increased during processing, ranging from 0.8 to 3.4 μg/g, compared with 0.6 μg/g in the natural tallow. The general observation was that the content of β-CE was influenced by temperature, duration and type of bleaching earth.