As a healthy vegetable oil, sunflower seed oil is favored by more and more consumers because of its rich nutritional value and light taste. So, how does sunflower seed oil go from raw materials to finished products? The following are the main steps of sunflower oil processing.

1. Pretreatment

Pretreatment is an important link in sunflower seed oil production, which mainly includes cleaning, shelling, kernel-shell separation, flaking and cooking.

Cleaning: Impurities, such as dust, stones and metal substances, are removed from sunflower seeds through screening, stone removal and impurity removal.

Shelling: The shells of sunflower seeds are removed by mechanical equipment for subsequent processing.

Separation of kernel and shell: Kernels and shells are separated by air separation or screening equipment to ensure the purity of raw materials.

Flaking: Process the seed kernel into thin slices to increase the contact area and improve the oil yield.

Cooking: By cooking, the seeds can reach a state suitable for pressing, and at the same time, the oil quality can be improved.

2. Pre-pressing

Pre-treated seeds enter a press for preliminary pressing to extract some crude oil. The main purpose of this stage is to reduce the oil content in the seed kernel and prepare for the subsequent leaching process.

3. Solvent extraction

The pre-pressed cake enters the solvent extraction equipment, and the remaining oil is extracted by solvent (usually No.6 solvent oil). Leaching method can greatly improve the oil yield and ensure the more thorough extraction of oil. Finally, the solvent is recovered by distillation and desolventization to obtain the leached crude oil.

4. Refining

Crude oil contains impurities and undesirable components, which need to be removed through a refining process. This process includes steps such as degumming, deacidification, decolorization, and deodorization, etc. After refining, sunflower seed oil becomes clear and transparent, with a pure aroma, and meets edible standards.

Through the above four sunflower oil processing main steps, sunflower seeds are transformed from raw materials into high-quality edible oil. Every step is very important, which not only affects the oil yield, but also determines the quality of the final product. Sunflower seed oil has become an indispensable part of healthy diet because of its scientific and rigorous processing process.