Crude Palm Olein

Brief Overview

Palm oil (also known as dendê oil, from Portuguese) is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a less extent from the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa.

Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because of some high beta-carotene content. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil derived from the kernel of the same fruit, or coconut oil derived from the kernel of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera). The differences are in color (raw palm kernel oil lacks carotenoids and is not red), and in saturated fat content: Palm mesocarp oil is 41% saturated, while Palm Kernel oil and Coconut oil are 81% and 86% saturated respectively.

Manufacturing Process

Initially, palm fruits are gathered from plantations and subsequently threshed. Threshing allows the shell to be removed from the core of the fruit. The removed shell are sterilized for a period of time before the fruits are pressed by utilizing a mechanical press. The pressurized palm fruits are squeezed and the crude palm olein are extracted from the fruits. Further, distillation is conducted to seperate the stearin (solid) and olein (liquid) of crude palm olein.

Food Industry

• It is used to manufacture deep frying oil because it does not have an unpleasant room odor, has resistance to oxidation and does not polymerize to gums. 
• It is used to manufacture cooking oil used in houses for cooking due to its longer frying life. It is used in the production of a different kind of margarine. 
• It is used to manufacture different types of shortening due to high SFC (22–25%) at room temperature. Also, crude palm olein is a raw material used in the production of margarine, Vanaspati, and other products.