Patent ID: 8460905

Claim:
A method for degumming a soybean oil composition comprising (a) providing a soybean oil composition containing a quantity of phospholipids, (b) contacting said soybean oil composition simultaneously with one or more phospholipase A enzymes in a quantity of about 2 ppm of active enzyme or less and one or more phospholipase C enzymes in a quantity of about 30 ppm of active enzyme or less, under conditions sufficient for the enzymes to react with the phospholipids to create phospholipid reaction products, and (c) separating the phospholipid reaction products from the oil composition, the remaining oil composition after the separation being a degummed soybean oil composition, whereby during step (b) the reaction of said one or more phospholipase A enzymes proceeds at a faster rate than it would in the absence of said one or more phospholipase C enzymes, wherein the duration of the reaction of the enzymes with the phospholipids is less than one hour, and wherein said reaction of the enzymes with the phospholipids is conducted at a pH of about 3-7 at a temperature of about 40-80° C., and the degummed soybean oil composition of step (c) has a phospholipid content measured as parts per million of phosphorous of about 20 ppm or less.