Palm oil is a vegetable oil produced in tropical areas with abundant rainfall.
It is perhaps the single most efficient source of edible oil that we have.
In the food world there are two concerns about palm oil. One is its nutritional profile; the second is its environmental impact.
For palm oil as used in Brazil, see the entry on Dendê Oil.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is reddish. When crude, it is high in carotenoids, but they are destroyed during refining. It is refined to make it food grade. It has a long shelf life, high smoke point and is slow to darken. It is used for cooking and deep frying, and commercially as an ingredient in processed foods.
In the developed world, we experience it mostly in its refined form in products.
The melting point of palm oil is 35 C (95 F). [1]Oil Palm: Fractions & Derivatives. Green Palm Sustainability. Accessed August 2020 at https://greenpalm.org/content/1599/Live/download/Palm%20and%20Palm%20Kernel%20Supply%20Chain%20-%20Fractions%20Derivatives%20and%20Product%20Uses%20WEB.pdf
Palm Kernel Oil
Palm kernel oil is pale yellow, and semi-solid at room temperature. It is mostly used for making soap and margarine.
To make it, cracked palm kernels are put through a screw press to extract the oil, then it is clarified. Some producers, instead of extracting it mechanically, extract it using a hydrocarbon solvent.
When done by hand, the kernels are fried or heated, then ground to a paste, and mixed with water. Then the solution is heated, which causes the oil to rise to the surface of the water, where it is skimmed off and collected.
On food items, palm kernel oil may simply be listed as “palm oil” rather than “palm kernel oil.”
The melting point of palm kernel oil is 26°C–30°C (79 F to 82 F). [2]Oil Palm: Fractions & Derivatives.
Palm oil benefits in food products
- Palm oil has a high melting point of 35 C (95 F), which lets it be semi-solid at room temperature;
- It can be separated into high and low melting point oils for different applications;
- Neutral taste and odour;
- Can give products a smooth, creamy texture;
- Acts as a natural preservative in foods, extending shelf life; [3] “Palm oil also has a natural preservative effect, which extends the shelf life of food products.” — Richards, Fay. The case for sustainable palm oil. The Journal of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. 26 February 2019. Accessed August 2020 at https://fstjournal.org/features/33-1/sustainable-palm-oil
- Lets hydrogenation process (as is required with alternative oils for solidity at room temperature) be avoided. [4]What is palm oil and why is it so useful? In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.3. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807000.
In the developing world, palm oil is particularly popular for everyday household use as a cooking oil:
“India, China, and Indonesia account for nearly 40% of all palm oil consumed worldwide. Where they once cooked with soya oil, palm oil has replaced it.” [5]Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil.
Nutrition
PER 100 G | Calories | Fat total | Saturated | Mono- unsaturated | Poly- unsaturated |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Palm oil | 8840 | 100 g | 49.3 g | 37 g | 9.3 g |
Palm kernel oil | 8620 | 100 g | 81.5 g | 11.4 g | 1.6 g |
Notes:
- Palm oil has a trace amount of Vitamin E, 15.94 mg
- Palm kernel oil has a trace amount of Vitamin E, 3.81 mg, and 24.7 µg Vitamin K
- Both have 0 cholesterol
Nutrition data source: USDA Agricultural Research Service FoodData Central database. Accessed August 2020 at https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html
Palm oil’s saturated fat level puts it on a par with butter, which has 50 g of saturated fat per 100 g. So, while it isn’t any worse healthwise than butter, it’s not a particularly healthful oil compared to, for example, olive oil, which has only 13.8 g of saturated fat per 100 g.
“In one study, people who were put on a diet rich in palm oil for about five weeks saw their LDL cholesterol (that’s considered the bad cholesterol) rise. This is very similar to what happens on a diet high in partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats. So what’s the better alternative? “Optimally, the substitution [for partially hydrogenated oils] wouldn’t be palm oil. “It would be a vegetable oil” such as canola or soybean oil, says Alice Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition at Tufts University. These oils contain more unsaturated fat.” [6]Aubrey, Allison. Palm Oil In The Food Supply: What You Should Know. National Public Radio. 25 July 2013. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/07/25/205486197/palm-oil-in-the-food-supply-what-you-should-know
Harvard Health Online says,
“Just because [palm oil] is not as bad as trans fat doesn’t make it a health food. According to Harvard nutrition experts, palm oil is clearly better than high–trans fat shortenings and probably a better choice than butter. But vegetable oils that are naturally liquid at room temperature, such as olive oil and canola oil, should still be your first choice.” [7]Robb-Nicholson, Celeste. By the way, doctor: Is palm oil good for you? Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Updated March 2019. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/by_the_way_doctor_is_palm_oil_good_for_you
Alternative names for palm oil
Broadly, palm oil is classed as a vegetable oil.
Various forms of it may show as an ingredient in products under various names: [8]World Wildlife Foundation. Which Everyday Products Contain Palm Oil? Accessed August 2020 at https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil [9]Rainforest Action Network. How to Avoid Conflict Palm Oil: A Grocery Store Cheat Sheet. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.ran.org/grocery_store_cheat_sheet/
- Elaeis Guineensis
- Etyl Palmitate
- Fractionated Palm Oil (FP(K)O)
- Glyceryl
- Hyrated Palm Glycerides
- Octyl Palmitate
- Organic Palm Kernel Oil (OPKO)
- Palm Fruit Oil (PKO)
- Palm Kernel
- Palm Kernel Oil
- Palm Kernel Olein (PKs)
- Palm Kernel Stearin (PKs)
- Palm Stearine
- Palmate
- Palmitate
- Palmitate – Vitamin A or Asorbyl Palmate/Palm Oil
- Palmitic Acid
- Palmitoyl Oxostearamide
- Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3
- Palmityl Alcohol
- Palmolein
- Partially Hydrogenated Palm Oil (PHKPO)
- Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS)
- Sodium Kernelate
- Sodium Laureth Sulfate
- Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
- Sodium Palm Kernelate
- Stearate
- Stearic Acid
- Vegetable Oils (Palm)
- Vegetable Oils (Palm Kernal)
Palm oil is an efficient source of edible oil
Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit; palm kernel oil from the kernel. The pulp of the fruit contains about 49% oil; the kernel about 50% oil.
100 kg (220 pounds) of fruit will yield 22 kg (48 ½ pounds) of palm oil and 1.6 kg (3 ½ pounds) of palm kernel oil.
The oil palm is perhaps the most efficient source of edible oil that we have. It not only produces year round, but also outproduces all other major sources of vegetable oil by a long shot: “It gives the highest yield per acre of any oilseed crop – almost five times as much oil per acre as rapeseed [canola], almost six times as much as sunflower and more than eight times as much as soybeans.” [10]Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil. [11] Table source: What is palm oil and why is it so useful?
The Malaysian Palm Oil Council points out:
“The oil palm is the most efficient oil-bearing crop in the world, requiring only 0.26 hectares of land to produce one tonne of oil while soybean, sunflower and rapeseed require 2.22, 2 and 1.52 hectares, respectively, to produce the same.” [12]Malaysian Palm Oil Council. The Oil Palm Tree. Accessed August 2020 at http://mpocegypt.com/the-oil-palm-tree/
Oil crop | Yield per hectare |
---|---|
Soya | 0.3-0.5 tonnes |
Canola (oil seed rape) | 0.8 tonnes |
Palm | 3.6 -3.8 tonnes |
“It’s perennial and evergreen, producing fruit all year round. It can grow in relatively poor quality soils and is less demanding with respect to soil preparation than other crops. Palm oil has an extremely high yield compared to comparable oil crops. It easily surpasses the yields of other vegetable oils such as soya, canola, olive, sunflower and rapeseed several times over.” [13]What is palm oil and why is it so useful?
In 2017 / 2018, 70 million US tons of palm oil was produced globally. Of that, 71% was used by the food industry, 24% by cosmetics, and the remainder of 5% went for biofuels. [14]”According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in 2017/18 growth of world palm oil production closed at 7% above the previous year, rising from 65.25 million tons (Mt) in the year 2016/17 to about 70 Mt in 2017/18, the main producers being Malaysia and Indonesia. Of total world production, 5% is used for biofuels, 24% for cosmetics, and 71% by the food industry.” — Gesteiro, Eva et al. “Palm Oil on the Edge.” Nutrients vol. 11,9 2008. 26 Aug. 2019, doi:10.3390/nu11092008
Domestic palm oil production
For millennia in Africa, palm oil was made in small quantities at home. Alan Davidson describes the process in the Penguin Companion to Food:
“The traditional method of extracting oil practised by Africans for their domestic purposes, was to take a small amount of fresh fruit and to boil, pound, wash, strain, and reboil it, then to skim off the oil from the water. This yield a good oil with a pleasant flavour. It did not keep long, but that did not matter, for only a little was made at a time. Kernels were cracked, and the oil extracted in a similar way.” [15]Davidson, Alan. The Penguin Companion to Food. London: The Penguin Group, 2002. Page 682.
Here is a video showing palm oil being made domestically:
Traditionally, and perhaps predictably, women were responsible for the laborious work:
“The fruit must next be separated from the sharp and prickly husk and this is done by hand, sometimes with the help of a machete. The fruit bunch is also often left in a warm place for several days so that it is easier to separate. Not all fruits in a bunch ripen at the same rate and particularly unripe fruits are discarded… The fruit is stripped from the prickly bundle, then covered with water and boiled, then pounded in a mortar to loosen the outer fruit – called mesocarp and fiber – from the inner seed. The palm oil is contained in the mass of mesocarp and fiber. Once separated from the seed the fiber is boiled and pounded again, even several times, and the oil, which rises to the top, is skimmed off. Even one bunch of fruit can require several days of boiling, pounding, re-boiling and skimming, as well as hours of collecting firewood and water, as the process consumes considerable amounts of both. This processing involved the traditional female tasks of cooking, pounding, and wood and water collection, and historical sources that distinguish on matters of identifying the gender of the worker note that it was women who produced this edible oil for household consumption.” [16]Maier, Donna J.E. Precolonial palm oil production and gender division of labor in nineteeth-century Gold Coast and Togoland. University of Wisconin Press: African Economic History , 2009, Vol. 37 (2009).www.jstor.org/stable/i40081866 pp. 11-12.
Growing oil palms
Palm oil comes from the fruit of a palm tree known as the “oil palm” (Elaeis guineensis). It is native to west and south-west Africa.
Oil palm trees are generally grown from seed, and will start producing in about 30 months. They have a productive life of 25 to 30 years. [17]How is palm oil made? Asian Agri Offices. Jakarta, Indonesia. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.asianagri.com/en/media-en/faqs/how-is-palm-oil-made
An oil palm tree will produce both male and female flowers — but not at the same time: [18]”Oil palm is monoecious, producing male and female flowers on the same tree but at different times. ” — Li, R., Reddy, V.A., Jin, J. et al. Comparative transcriptome analysis of oil palm flowers reveals an EAR-motif-containing R2R3-MYB that modulates phenylpropene biosynthesis. BMC Plant Biol 17, 219 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-017-1174-4
“When the young oil palm has been planted in the palm grove, it produces male flowers. The flowers form at the base of each leaf. For several months, the oil palm produces only male flowers. After that, for several months, it produces only female flowers. The male flowers are grouped in spikes. The female flowers form other spikes. The male flowers fertilize the female flowers. Fertilized female flowers turn into a cluster of fruit.” [19]The Oil Palm. FAO Economic and Social Development Series. 1990. P-69. ISBN 92-5-100625-3. Accessed August 2020 at http://www.fao.org/3/t0309e/t0309e01.htm
This makes a special pollinator for the oil palm, a species of weevil (Elaedobius kamerunicus), critically important for bridging the “seasons” on the flowers. (In Malaysia, it was laboriously done by hand until 1981 until the weevil was introduced there.) “ [20]Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil. Manchester, England: The Guardian. 19 February 2019. These beetles get pollen from the male flowers on them, and when female flowers are available to visit, carry it to the female flowers.
The clumps of female flowers turn into large clusters of fruit. Each cluster can have up to 2,000 fruits in it, and weigh 10 to 40 kg (22 to 88 pounds). The fruits, the size of a large olive or small plum, are a dark purple or black ripening to red or black streaked with red. In each fruit, in the centre of the pulp there is a single seed (called the kernel) encased in a shell.
Varieties of oil palms
There are three varieties of oil palm: dura, pisifera, and tenera. They are classed by the type of fruit they produce:
“The modern oil palm tree Elaeis guineensis has three fruit forms: dura (thick-shelled); pisifera (shell-less); and tenera (thin-shelled). The tenera palm yields far more oil than dura and is the basis for commercial palm oil production in all of South East Asia….. Tenera palms [yield] 30% more oil per land area than dura palms.” [21]Gerardo Jiménez-Sánchez, Jim Philp. The oil palm: a classic bioeconomy quandary, and the power of genomics. Genomics and Society, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-420195-8.00011-2
A palm fruit consists of the skin of the fruit, then the pulp, then an inner woody shell, and inside the shell, the kernel, or seed. There is no oil to be had from the shell part, only from the pulp and the kernel.
Dura varieties have a thick shell; pisifera have no shell. Tenera are a hybrid (cross) between the two.
In general, pisifera variety produces little to no fruit at all, and are mostly grown to help produce tenera hybrid palms.
Tenera palms are considered by some growers to be the most desirable. The trees not only produce large bunches of fruit, but each fruit also yields more oil because it has a thinner shell. Seeds from tenera palms won’t grow true to seed: the resulting palm may be a tenera, but it could also be a dura or a pisifera type.
The tenera hybrid was identified in Cameroon as early as 1902: “According to Hartley (1988), in Cameroon Germans had identified thin shelled oil palm fruit with high oil content as early as 1902. Later it was known as Tenera type.” [22]Ten, Kiap Seng. The Botany of Oil Palm. Incorporated Society of Planters. 1983. Page 5.
Production areas for palm oil
Palm oil is a tropical crop.
“Countries located within 10 degrees latitude of the equator are said to be suitable for oil palm cultivation. Some of them experience several months of drought, which drastically reduces yield.” [23]Basiron, Yusof et al. Palm oil production through sustainable plantations. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 109. 2007. Page 290. DOI 10.1002/ejlt.200600223
Nigeria was the largest exporter of palm oil until Malaysia overtook it in 1934. Indonesia has now overtaken Malaysia as the biggest producer, perhaps simply because it has a larger land-mass, though because Indonesia uses a lot of what it produces, Malaysia remains the biggest exporter:
“Until recently, Malaysia was the world’s largest producer of palm oil. It is now second to Indonesia, which has much more area available to grow the palms. Because Indonesia consumes a portion of its palm oil domestically, Malaysia remains the world’s largest exporter of palm oil and palm products.” [24]Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine. The Nexus of Biofuels, Climate Change, and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2014 Apr 2. 2, Case Study: The Palm Oil Example. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK196448/
In 2014, Indonesian production was 33.5 million tonnes. Malaysian production was 20.35 million tonnes. [25]Where does palm oil come from? In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.4. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807001. Together, Indonesia and Malaysia produce 85% of the world’s palm oil. [26]Purnomo, Henry et al. Reconciling oil palm economic development and environmental conservation in Indonesia: A value chain dynamic approach. Forest Policy and Economics. 2020, Vol: 111, Page: 102089. ISSN: 1389-9341
Environmental concerns about palm oil
Until the early 2000s, the concerns about palm oil seem most frequently seemed to be nutritional, and had to do with its high levels of saturated fat. As producers of palm oil began to respond to increased demand for it, the concern switched to an environmental one.
The environmental concern with palm oil is the deforestation that plantations are leading to in South East Asia, and the knock-on effects of loss of habitat for animals, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and people being driven out of their homes to make way for the plantations.
What complicates matters is that — because palm oil is just so more productive than other oil crops, by several magnitudes — any substitute crops would require even more land to be put under cultivation, which could lead to more deforestation wherever those crops are grown.
Oil palms are also ecological wonder children, in that they achieve this productivity without the great deal of expensive chemicals that other edible oil crops require:
“Along with using less land, the oil palm gobbles up significantly fewer pesticides and chemical fertilizers than coconut, corn or any other vegetable oil source.” [27]Fassler, Joe. Giving Up Palm Oil Might Actually Be Bad for the Environment. Smithsonian Magazine. March 2016. Accessed August 2016 at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/giving-up-palm-oil-might-actually-be-bad-environment-180958092/
The core of the issue could be seen as one of our demand for oil, rather than being an issue about palm oil itself.
In fact, if deforestation is the concern, then even crops such as soy and corn (maize) are giving us a lot more to worry about, yet no action groups have sprung up over tofu:
“The data couldn’t be clearer: by far the biggest global cause of deforestation is the production of beef, predominantly in the Amazon region of Brazil and neighbouring countries. Second to beef is soya production, though its effect is far less significant. Palm oil and timber (wood products) are next on the list, with palm oil estimated to drive little more than one tenth of the deforestation caused by beef production. ” [28]What’s the issue? In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.5. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807002
The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) is against palm oil boycotts. See: Why palm oil boycotts are not as helpful as they might seem. (link valid as of 2020.)
They “decided that the only way to tackle the problem was to engage constructively with the producers, traders and processors to get them to change their practices.” [29]A lobbying organisation’s perspective. In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.8. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807005.
Consequently, in 2004, the WWF brought together some palm growers, manufacturers and retailers to form the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO as of 2020 has over 4000 members and works on implementing sustainable standards for palm oil production. Their goal is to make palm oil certified as sustainable the norm, though the challenges are many, including the challenge of tracing oil through the complexity of supply chains and networks.
Some groups have criticized the results of the RSPO and begun initiatives of their own, including the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG).
One hope is directed at genetic testing of seed in order to grow the trees that will be the most productive:
“In 2013, a remarkable discovery was made. The Shell gene [Ed: the gene that determines how thick the non-oil yielding shell is] has proven extremely challenging to identify in oil palm… [But] Singh et al. identified the gene and determined its central role in controlling oil yield. Regulation of the Shell gene will enable breeders to boost palm oil yields by nearly one-third, which is excellent news for the industry, the rainforest, and bioeconomy policymakers. The Shell gene is responsible for the oil palm’s three known shell forms: dura (thick); pisifera (shell-less); and tenera (thin), a hybrid of dura and pisifera palms. Tenera palms contain one mutant and one normal version, or allele, of Shell, an optimum combination that results in 30% more oil per land area than dura palms.
Seed producers can now use the genetic marker for the Shell gene to distinguish the three fruit forms in the nursery long before they are field-planted. Currently, it can take 6 years to identify whether an oil palm plantlet is a high-yielding palm. Even with selective breeding, 10–15% of plants are the low-yielding dura form due to uncontrollable wind and insect pollination, particularly in plantations without stringent quality control measures… Enhanced oil yields can optimize and ultimately reduce the acreage devoted to oil palm plantations, providing an opportunity for conservation and restoration of dwindling rainforest reserves.” [30]Gerardo Jiménez-Sánchez, Jim Philp. The oil palm: a classic bioeconomy quandary, and the power of genomics. Genomics and Society, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-420195-8.00011-2
Well-meaning First World campaigners to simply ban palm oil may be unaware of how the industry has actually lifted the economies of developing countries:
“Millions of farmers and their families in producing countries work in the palm oil sector and palm oil plays an important role in the reduction of poverty in these areas. In Indonesia and Malaysia, a total of 4.5 million people earn their living from palm oil production. Stopping the production of palm oil altogether would create significant problems for these people who support their families by working in this industry.” [31]Richard, Fay. The case for sustainable palm oil.
The question of palm oil may be one of those issues where the simple answer — ban it — may not only be the wrong answer, but the worst possible one.
History Notes
The oil palm is native to West Africa. An archaelogical team in Egypt believed that a substance they found in a tomb dating to 3000 BC was palm oil. [32]Kiple, Kenneth F.; Conee Ornelas, Kriemhild, eds. The Cambridge World History of Food. Cambridge University Press.
The importation of palm oil into Western Europe started after the Napoleonic wars.
At first palm oil was used only industrially, because of its high acid content of 15 to 20 %. In the second half of the 1800s, palm oil refiners, particularly in Hamburg, Germany, had figured out to refine and deodorize it into a more neutral substance so that it could be used in food items such as margarine.
In fact, a direct line can be drawn between German industry’s desire for palm oil, and its desire to acquire territories in Africa:
“In the latter year, two years before the German Empire acquired the colonies of Togoland and the Cameroons, the Carl Woermann firm organized regular shipping services -between Hamburg and the Guinea Coast. Palm oil was the product which stimulated and dominated the entire trade. This fact one must know and bear in mind if he is to understand the desire of the German Empire for colonial possessions. The former German colonies, Togoland and the Cameroons, had their origin in the factories of the Hanseatic merchants on the palm oil coast. The growing demand for vegetable fats induced the German Empire, established in 1871, to acquire tropical colonies.” [33]Waibel, Leo. “The Political Significance of Tropical Vegetable Fats for the Industrial Countries of Europe.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 33, no. 2, 1943, pp. 118–128. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2561004. Accessed 13 Aug. 2020. Page 123.
The race for territories in Africa by European colonial powers in order to secure palm oil and other resources for their businesses is regarded as a major contributing factor to World War One.
Four oil palms were brought from Mauritius to the Bognor botanical gardens in Java, Indonesia, in 1848. “Seeds from them were distributed around Indonesia and, by luck, a superior, high-yield strain arose at Deli in Sumatra. It was short-stemmed, which made harvesting easier. The cultivation of this variety expanded rapidly in Indonesia, and later in Malaysia.” [34]Davidson, Alan. Penguin Companion to Food. Page 683.
The oil palm tree was brought to what is now Malaysia in 1875 to be grown as an ornamental. In 1917, the British in Malaysia began cultivating it for commercial exploitation. The first plantation was at Tennamaran Estate in Kuala Selangor. [35]Basiron, Yusof et al. Palm oil production through sustainable plantations. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 109. 2007. Page 290. DOI 10.1002/ejlt.200600223
Cross-pollination in both Indonesia and Malaysia was done entirely by manual labour.
In the 1970s, a separation process known as “fractionation” was developed which meant palm oil could be developed into a range of fats with different properties.
In 1981, the palm oil weevils were introduced into south-east Asia to replace manual pollination.
The great industrial switch to palm oil started in 1995, when Unilever switched:
“By the early 1990s… the Unilever board of directors saw a scientific consensus forming against trans fat and decided to get rid of it… The switchover happened suddenly. In 1994, a Unilever refineries manager named Gerrit van Duijn received a call from his bosses in Rotterdam. Twenty Unilever plants in 15 countries needed to remove partially hydrogenated oils from 600 fat blends and replace them with trans-fat free components… In the end, there was only one choice: oil from the oil palm tree – either palm oil (extracted from the fruit) or palm kernel oil (from the seed). No other oil could be refined to the consistency needed for Unilever’s various margarine blends and baked goods without producing trans fat. It was the only alternative to partially hydrogenated oils, Van Duijn told me. The switch at each plant had to occur simultaneously – the production lines couldn’t handle a mixture of the old oils and the new. …. One day in 1995, with trucks queued up outside Unilever plants across Europe, it was done. It was a moment that changed the processed food industry forever.” [36]Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil.
Around 2006, Indonesia overtook Malaysia as the top producer. [37]Where does palm oil come from?
In April 2011, Kentucky Fried Chicken announced that at its 800 outlets in the UK and in Ireland, it would switch its frying oil from palm oil to “high oleic rapeseed oil” (aka Canola oil.) Though it estimated the switch would increase their costs by a million pounds a year, the company said it would also reduce the saturated fat in its chicken products by 25%. The company would continue for the time being to use palm oil as an ingredient in buns, tortillas and hash browns. [38]Hickman, Martin. KFC to stop using palm oil. London: The Independent. 7 April 2011.
Sources
Daud, Syarifah Nadiah Syed Mat and Idris Abd. Ghani. Population density of oil palm pollinator weevil Elaeidobius kamerunicus based on seasonal effect and age of oil palm. AIP Conference Proceedings 1784, 060051 (2016); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4966889.
Poku, Kwasi. Small-Scale Palm Oil Processing in Africa. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 148. ISSN 1010-1365. 2002.
References
↑1 | Oil Palm: Fractions & Derivatives. Green Palm Sustainability. Accessed August 2020 at https://greenpalm.org/content/1599/Live/download/Palm%20and%20Palm%20Kernel%20Supply%20Chain%20-%20Fractions%20Derivatives%20and%20Product%20Uses%20WEB.pdf |
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↑2 | Oil Palm: Fractions & Derivatives. |
↑3 | “Palm oil also has a natural preservative effect, which extends the shelf life of food products.” — Richards, Fay. The case for sustainable palm oil. The Journal of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. 26 February 2019. Accessed August 2020 at https://fstjournal.org/features/33-1/sustainable-palm-oil |
↑4 | What is palm oil and why is it so useful? In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.3. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807000. |
↑5 | Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil. |
↑6 | Aubrey, Allison. Palm Oil In The Food Supply: What You Should Know. National Public Radio. 25 July 2013. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/07/25/205486197/palm-oil-in-the-food-supply-what-you-should-know |
↑7 | Robb-Nicholson, Celeste. By the way, doctor: Is palm oil good for you? Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Updated March 2019. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/by_the_way_doctor_is_palm_oil_good_for_you |
↑8 | World Wildlife Foundation. Which Everyday Products Contain Palm Oil? Accessed August 2020 at https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil |
↑9 | Rainforest Action Network. How to Avoid Conflict Palm Oil: A Grocery Store Cheat Sheet. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.ran.org/grocery_store_cheat_sheet/ |
↑10 | Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil. |
↑11 | Table source: What is palm oil and why is it so useful? |
↑12 | Malaysian Palm Oil Council. The Oil Palm Tree. Accessed August 2020 at http://mpocegypt.com/the-oil-palm-tree/ |
↑13 | What is palm oil and why is it so useful? |
↑14 | ”According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in 2017/18 growth of world palm oil production closed at 7% above the previous year, rising from 65.25 million tons (Mt) in the year 2016/17 to about 70 Mt in 2017/18, the main producers being Malaysia and Indonesia. Of total world production, 5% is used for biofuels, 24% for cosmetics, and 71% by the food industry.” — Gesteiro, Eva et al. “Palm Oil on the Edge.” Nutrients vol. 11,9 2008. 26 Aug. 2019, doi:10.3390/nu11092008 |
↑15 | Davidson, Alan. The Penguin Companion to Food. London: The Penguin Group, 2002. Page 682. |
↑16 | Maier, Donna J.E. Precolonial palm oil production and gender division of labor in nineteeth-century Gold Coast and Togoland. University of Wisconin Press: African Economic History , 2009, Vol. 37 (2009).www.jstor.org/stable/i40081866 pp. 11-12. |
↑17 | How is palm oil made? Asian Agri Offices. Jakarta, Indonesia. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.asianagri.com/en/media-en/faqs/how-is-palm-oil-made |
↑18 | ”Oil palm is monoecious, producing male and female flowers on the same tree but at different times. ” — Li, R., Reddy, V.A., Jin, J. et al. Comparative transcriptome analysis of oil palm flowers reveals an EAR-motif-containing R2R3-MYB that modulates phenylpropene biosynthesis. BMC Plant Biol 17, 219 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-017-1174-4 |
↑19 | The Oil Palm. FAO Economic and Social Development Series. 1990. P-69. ISBN 92-5-100625-3. Accessed August 2020 at http://www.fao.org/3/t0309e/t0309e01.htm |
↑20 | Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil. Manchester, England: The Guardian. 19 February 2019. |
↑21 | Gerardo Jiménez-Sánchez, Jim Philp. The oil palm: a classic bioeconomy quandary, and the power of genomics. Genomics and Society, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-420195-8.00011-2 |
↑22 | Ten, Kiap Seng. The Botany of Oil Palm. Incorporated Society of Planters. 1983. Page 5. |
↑23 | Basiron, Yusof et al. Palm oil production through sustainable plantations. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 109. 2007. Page 290. DOI 10.1002/ejlt.200600223 |
↑24 | Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine. The Nexus of Biofuels, Climate Change, and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2014 Apr 2. 2, Case Study: The Palm Oil Example. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK196448/ |
↑25 | Where does palm oil come from? In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.4. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807001. |
↑26 | Purnomo, Henry et al. Reconciling oil palm economic development and environmental conservation in Indonesia: A value chain dynamic approach. Forest Policy and Economics. 2020, Vol: 111, Page: 102089. ISSN: 1389-9341 |
↑27 | Fassler, Joe. Giving Up Palm Oil Might Actually Be Bad for the Environment. Smithsonian Magazine. March 2016. Accessed August 2016 at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/giving-up-palm-oil-might-actually-be-bad-environment-180958092/ |
↑28 | What’s the issue? In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.5. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807002 |
↑29 | A lobbying organisation’s perspective. In: Engaging with Controversies in the Food System. University of Reading and European Institute of Innovation and Technology Food. Module 2.8. Accessed August 2020 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/engaging-with-controversies-in-the-food-system/3/steps/807005. |
↑30 | Gerardo Jiménez-Sánchez, Jim Philp. The oil palm: a classic bioeconomy quandary, and the power of genomics. Genomics and Society, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-420195-8.00011-2 |
↑31 | Richard, Fay. The case for sustainable palm oil. |
↑32 | Kiple, Kenneth F.; Conee Ornelas, Kriemhild, eds. The Cambridge World History of Food. Cambridge University Press. |
↑33 | Waibel, Leo. “The Political Significance of Tropical Vegetable Fats for the Industrial Countries of Europe.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 33, no. 2, 1943, pp. 118–128. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2561004. Accessed 13 Aug. 2020. Page 123. |
↑34 | Davidson, Alan. Penguin Companion to Food. Page 683. |
↑35 | Basiron, Yusof et al. Palm oil production through sustainable plantations. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 109. 2007. Page 290. DOI 10.1002/ejlt.200600223 |
↑36 | Tullis, Paul. How the world got hooked on palm oil. |
↑37 | Where does palm oil come from? |
↑38 | Hickman, Martin. KFC to stop using palm oil. London: The Independent. 7 April 2011. |