In October 2019, Bunge Loders Croklaan had the distinction of winning second place at the prestigious NENnovation Awards curated by the Royal Netherlands Standardization Institute (NEN).

The awards recognize innovations in standardization and our victory is for the development of a fast, reliable and automated analytical method to test for contaminants, specifically MCPD and glycidyl esters in plant-based oils and fats. MCPD and glycidyl esters are process contaminants caused by high temperatures during the refining process of plant-based oils and fats; they can present a potential food safety risk.

Adhering to food safety standards is crucial and has been a major focus point for Bunge Loders Croklaan. In the industry, there are three methods available to measure contaminant levels in oils and fats, but as none of them were both fast and reliable enough for us, we set out to develop a new procedure. In collaboration with Interscience Breda, our team worked hard on developing the Bunge Loders Croklaan method, also known as 'the Zwagerman' method.

The method has developed a manual system into a fully automated one, making it very suitable to use in a production organization. The method and systems are available at various locations across Bunge Loders Croklaan Malaysia, China, America and the Netherlands.

Wide spread adoption

René Blok, our lead for analytical development and a committee member of the NEN associated with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), is responsible for the promotion of the standardization of the method. The American AOCS is connected and an inter-laboratory validation study has started as part of the standardization. This method has the potential to become the standard in the industry as an AOCS, ISO and European standard.