Prion decontamination during the oleochemical process of fat hydrogenation

The human food and animal feed industry and even oleochemical manufacturing processes might be exposed to contamination from products of BSE‐infected cattle. Although the most important oleochemical raw material, i.e. tallow, is not considered to be a causal factor for BSE, the potential risk associated with tallow‐derived products has to be evaluated in the light of the specific production process. The main production process for oleochemicals, i.e. hydrolytic fat splitting of tallow yielding glycerol and a mixture of crude fatty acids, guarantees prion‐free products, safe for human consumption [1]. Fatty acids, however, are not necessarily produced by hydrolytic fat splitting. In order to evaluate these fatty acids with regard to prion safety, we analysed the industrial conditions of catalytic fat hydrogenation, which is widely applied to improve storage and flavour stability of fatty acids. Quantitative data for the degradation of the pathological prion protein and the inactivation of prion infectivity are presented. A risk assessment calculation demonstrates that the industrial conditions of fat hydrogenation are sufficiently effective to reduce the risk of BSE contamination to an acceptable minimum.