George Allard, vice president and general manager, Bunge Oils, said: “Our investment in this state-of-the-art facility enables Bunge to use the latest technology to continue to work toward eliminating trans fat and reducing saturated fat while providing manufacturers with the functionality they need.”
The process improvements at the refinery include creating the flexibility to refine multiple oils such as soy and palm in addition to increasing its capacity.
Adding a packaging plant improves efficiency as Bunge no longer has to ship oils from the refinery to other locations.
The facility is one of Bunge’s two integrated crush, refining and packaging facilities. The plant takes soybeans and crushes them to extract the oil and use the remaining protein meal for animal feed.
The extracted soy oil is refined and can be blended into value-added ingredients, such as salad oils, shortenings and specialty blends.
Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge North America and its subsidiaries operate grain elevators, oilseed processing plants, edible oil refineries and packaging facilities, and corn, wheat and rice mills in the US, Canada and Mexico.