From Forest to Plate: Tracing the Journey of Palm Oil.
Palm is the most widely consumed vegetable oil in the world. To many of us, this may be surprising considering most consumers do not directly purchase it. One of its end products is palm oil. Let us take a look at how palm oil is produced, where it comes from, and how it ends up in the products we see in our plates.
Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is widespread because of its lower cost and its high oxidative stability of the refined product when used for frying. Oxidation stability is the resistance against chemical changes that occur during long storage of biodiesel. Palm oil is also the most resource-efficient vegetable oil. This is because oil palm trees require considerably less land to produce the same yield as compared to other oils. For example, every hectare of land that produces 0.7 tonnes of sunflower oil will be able to produce 3.8 tonnes of palm oil. The same quantity of land can produce more than five times the usual quantity of oil when it’s growing oil palm trees! Not only is the yield greater but the nutrition content is much higher, as seen in the case of palm oil. It is rich in antioxidants, namely vitamin E, which supports the immune system, prevents heart diseases and lowers risk of cancer
Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from oil crops in 2014. On average globally, we humans consumed 7.7 kg (17 lb) of palm oil per person in 2015. As of 2018, Nigeria was the third-largest producer of palm oil in the world. Now that we have considered these facts, let us now see where palm oil comes from.
Palm oil is also an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp, which is the reddish pulp of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is extracted from the loose fruits of the fresh fruit bunches. While the flesh of the fruit is used to produce palm oil, the inner seed is refined into palm kernel oil. The oil is used in food manufacturing, biofuel, and even surprisingly, in the production of beauty products.
Palm Oil Production Process
Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because of its high beta-carotene content. Beta-Carotene is an organic, strongly colored red-orange pigment abundant in fungi, plants, and fruits. The oil palm starts bearing fruit two or three years after planting and bears fruit continuously throughout its life of around 25 years. The oil palm produces bunches containing many fruits with the fleshy mesocarp enclosing a kernel that is covered by a very hard shell. The palm oil (coming from the pulp) and palm kernels are considered to be primary products. The next stage is the milling process. Milling is the process of grinding, cutting, pressing, or crushing the kernel in a special machine. After milling, various palm oil products are made using refining processes. First is fractionation, with crystallization and separation processes to obtain solid and liquid fractions. Then melting and degumming processes removes impurities. Then the oil is filtered and bleached. Physical refining removes smells and coloration to produce refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil and free fatty acids, which are used in the production of soaps, washing powder and other products.
In simpler details………….
The first step in the palm oil production process is harvesting the palm fruit. Harvested bunches are transported to factories where they are first sterilized and then threshed.
Once separated from the bunch, the fruits go through a digester, so they can be mechanically pressed in order to extract oil from the pulp. The pulp, which is the hard outer layer of the mature fruit typically contains 56–70% of edible oil. The kernels, which are the soft inner part of the seed, are separated out at this stage and pressed independently for extracting palm kernel oil. After refining, the final step of the palm oil production process may be to fraction or separate the oil into liquid and solid phases. This is how we obtain our palm oil.
Other important points to consider:
It is also worthy to note that even with the consequences of bush burning, air pollution and erosion, palm oil can be produced in an environmentally friendly manner. Farming can be sustainable if proper regulations and methods are followed for the sustainable cultivation of oil palm trees.
It is also worthy to note that margarine, which was in the past made using beef fat, was found to be even worse for one’s health. The subsequent years saw the food industry scramble to replace butter and margarine with a healthier alternative. Palm oil was seen as a fitting substitute because it was free from trans-fatty acids
In conclusion, while there are certainly valid concerns about the environmental and social impacts of palm oil production, it is important to recognize that this versatile crop also has significant benefits. Palm oil is a highly efficient and productive crop, with the potential to provide livelihoods for millions of people around the world. It is also a vital ingredient in a wide range of consumer products, from food and cosmetics to biofuel and industrial chemicals. By promoting sustainable and responsible practices, we can ensure that these benefits are realized without causing harm to the environment or local communities. With the right policies and practices in place, palm oil can be a powerful tool for economic development and environmental sustainability.
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