Defining Standard Operating Procedures for Shea Processing

1
Defining Standard Operating Procedures for Shea
Processing

• Peter Lovett
• WATH/ProKarité

2
Multiple markets

• Traditional butter
• Cultural locational variation
• Edible, cosmetics, medicinal, soap, etc
• Non-traditional edible
• Cocoa Butter Improvers, margarines, etc
• Non-traditional personal care
• Pomades, soap, pharmaceuticals, etc

3
Multiple methods

• Pits smoked kneaded-in-water
• Piles boiled fried kneaded-in-water
• Piles boiled expeller
• Dried raw sand-roasted boiled-in-water
• Dried raw pressed

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Quality Parameters

• Free fatty acids
• Peroxide values
• Unsaponifiable content profile
• Melting point
• Humidity
• Impurities
• Colour

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Consistency!
SOP x
SOP y
2
Free Fatty Acid
1
0
Batch
Batch
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Production cost vs market price

• Processing inputs
• Firewood, water, labour, etc
• Technology costs
• Extraction rate
• Refining cost
• Market demand

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E.g. cost vs price
Drier
Grinding mill
Pressing machine
Cost Sell Profit
500 600 100
700 750 50
550 600 50
1000 1200 200
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Standard Operating Procedures

• Need step-by-step process
• Understanding of each stage
• Timing
• Effect on quality
• Extraction rates
• Cost of each stage
• Expected quality at a given consistency

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Traditional SOPs

• E.g. SOP 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, etc
• To include range of traditional methods
• Expected
• Degraded oil
• Wide consistency range
• Cultural demand
• Large market

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Mid-range SOPs

• Produces a standard product
• good consistency
• Medium oil quality, e.g. FFA 3-4
• Probably further refining expected
• Soap making, deodorisation, etc
• Ease of production at low cost
• E.g. kernels for export, national soap production

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Top range SOPs

• High set-up cost
• training, driers, presses, etc
• Niche markets
• High consistency
• High Quality _at_ Quantity (e.g. lt1 FFA)
• Certification probably demanded by market
• Cosmetics, pharmaceuticals

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Key questions - Quality

• Provenance profiles
• Unsaponifiables
• Effect of accumulation aqueous extraction
• Cause of peroxide formation during boiling
• Levels of PAHs alternative methods
• Economic, efficient drying methods

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Market driven

• Offer quality parameters
• Assess market demand
• quality, quantity price
• Finalise quality standards
• Certification methods
• Networks to allow free market access
• Offer SOPs to producers buyers