Iron and phosphorus contents of soybean oil from normal and damaged beans

Analyses of commercial crude soybean oils showed a highly significant correlation of 0.74 between free fatty acid and iron content. Poor flavor characteristics exhibited by finished oils extracted from damaged beans may be caused in part by a higher free fatty acid and related higher iron content in crude oils. Source of the increased iron appears to be both damaged beams and steel processing equipment. Crude oil from damaged beans is 2–10 times higher in iron than crude oil extracted from sound beans. Iron appears loosely bound in soybeans, since autoclaving, spontaneous heating in storage, or treating with alcohol increased the level of iron in laboratory extracted crude oil from 0.2 to more than 1 ppm. Present data do not indicate that iron and phosphorus contents are associated statistically in extracted oils.