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| Courtesy Malaysian Palm
Oil Promotion Council |
| Palm oil’s red hue is
due to natural carotene. |
While Asian and African societies are avid consumers
of palm oil, the U.S. market has yet to warm up
to the healthy newcomer, often favoring olive, corn,
soybean, sunflower, or vegetable oils. Worldwide,
palm oil is used as a cooking oil, an industrial
frying substance, and as an ingredient in margarine,
shortenings, and ice cream. A host of non-food uses
also exist, including soaps, cosmetics and rubber
processing.
What American households are overlooking is a wholesome
addition to their diets, a substitute for other oils
that require hydrogenation, which produces trans fatty
acids. Palm oil, alternatively, when used in many
food formulations, does not require hydrogenation
and is trans fatty acid free.
After a string of bad publicity surrounding palm oil
in the 1980s, over 150 studies have been commissioned
to research its advantages and disadvantages. Results
have consistently shown that palm oil consumption
is good for the heart, high in vitamin E, antioxidants,
and alpha- and beta-carotene, and raises high-density
lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the “good cholesterol.”
Palm oil’s fatty acid concentration is approximately
51 percent unsaturated and 49 percent saturated.
Some prejudice exists against palm oil because of
its distinctive red color. “Red is its original
color because of the carotene,” a precursor to
vitamin A, says Datuk Haron Siraj, chief executive
officer of the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council.
“It’s not bleached like other oils.”
Activists have been drawing attention to the plight
of orangutans whose natural habitat is in forests
being cleared and converted to palm plantations in
neighboring Indonesia. Malaysian palm oil farmers
are concerned that Malaysia will be associated with
such activities.
In Malaysia, illegal loggers are fined up to $130,000,
and anti-logging laws are strongly enforced. “Once
a natural forest is declared to be conserved it cannot
be touched,” says Haron Siraj. Over 50 percent
of Malaysia’s forests are preserved.
Palm oil plantations are very efficient in terms of
land usage. Each palm oil tree bears oil for 20 to
25 years. It starts producing palm oil at age three
and can be harvested every two weeks. On average 1.4
to 2 tons of palm oil are produced for every acre
of cultivated land.
“Malaysia is striving toward sustainable agriculture
practices to maintain the environment,” says
Haron Siraj. Sensitive to the negative repercussions
of unnatural chemical usage, plantation managers build
huts to attract owls that naturally eliminate the
rats that thrive in the plantations and use no chemicals
to kills pests.
Palm oil became a commercial commodity in the 1960s
as a diversification crop to balance Malaysia’s
rubber and tin-dominated market.
Malaysia produces just less than 12 million tons of
palm oil each year of which 90 percent, or 11 million
tons, is exported to 140 countries. “This is
an industry that is socio-economically very important
to us,” says Haron Siraj. Palm oil is a $5 billion
a year industry.
For more information on the
Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council, visit www.mpopc.org.my.
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