Palm oil fractionationModification techniques like fractionation, interesterification (chemical or enzymatic) and hydrogenation allow proposing a large range of new fatty products. At a time when "trans" fatty acids are questioned, fractionation of fats and oils catches more and more interest; in this context, dry fractionation is by far the simplest and cheapest fractional crystallization technique (no chemicals, no effluent and no losses). The oil processing industry uses dry fractionation to extend the application of a whole variety of fatty matters as well as to replace, fully or partially, the chemical modifications. Due to the continuous developments of the dry fractionation process, a whole variety of products normally produced by solvent fractionation can now be obtained with a high degree of selectivity with dry fractionation. As the crystallization operates in the bulk, viscosity problems limit the degree of crystallization in one single step, and multi-step operations are currently used, giving rise to a wide range of fractions suitable for different applications. The secret is to combine proper crystal development with highly efficient separation by using membrane press filters allowing squeezing out the stearin cake for as much liquid occlusion (olein) as possible. The original booming of the dry fractionation process has helped mostly palm oil to conquer a strong position on the commodity market in one single stage; today, palm oil is without doubt the most widely fractionated oil. New demands for special cuts drifted the industry towards a more sophisticated approach: high-iodine value super and top oleins, palm red fractions (high carotene and tocopherol/tocotrienol contents) or solvent-free cocoa butter equivalents (palm mid fractions) are certainly what the future has in store.

Aims: To determine the microbiological quality of washing-up water and the environment in domestic and commercial kitchens. Methods and Results: Chicken meals were prepared by people without food safety training in their own kitchen (n ¼ 52) or by trained staff in a commercial kitchen (n ¼ 10). Study participants then washed-up, cleaned the kitchen and completed a food hygiene questionnaire. The temperature and microbiological quality of the washingup water, and the presence of pathogens in dishcloths, tea towels and other kitchen samples was determined. Of the raw chickens used in meal preparation, 96 and 13% were naturally contaminated with Campylobacter or Salmonella spp., respectively. In domestic kitchens, two of 45 sponges, dishcloths or scourers and one of 32 hand-or tea towels were contaminated with Campylobacter after washing-up and cleaning but none of the tap or sink swabs yielded pathogens. The mean washing-up water temperature in the domestic kitchens was 40AE7°C, whereas in the commercial kitchen it was 44AE7°C (P ¼ 0AE04). Study participants who used hotter water ( ‡40°C) had lower levels of bacteria in their washing-up water. The aerobic plate counts of the washing-up water samples in domestic homes were usually between 10 5 and 10 6 CFU ml )1 but those associated with the commercial kitchen were consistently lower (P ¼ 0AE01). Despite this, Campylobacter was detected in one of 10 washing-up water samples from the commercial kitchen but in none of the samples from domestic kitchens. Conclusions: Pathogenic microorganisms can be recovered relatively frequently from the kitchen environment. Significance and Impact of Study: By identifying factors that affect the number of microorganisms in washing-up water and the kitchen environment, evidence-based recommendations on implementing domestic food hygiene can be made.