Determination of residual hexane and microbiological status in de-oiled soybean meal

A simple volatization procedure was developed to detect the residual hexane in solvent extracted soy meals with good precision using the gas chromatog raphic technique. The study showed that this method released and assayed re sidual hexane up to one ppm. The deoiled soybean meals from different solve nt extraction plants were also analyzed for microbial load. These results i ndicated the presence of Coliforms, Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococci, Aero bacter; Bacillus, Aspergillus and Mucor in the isolates.