The oil palm produces bunches containing many fruits with the fleshy mesocarp enclosing a kernel that is covered by a very hard shell. The FAO considers palm oil (coming from the pulp) and palm kernels to be primary products. The oil extraction rate from a bunch varies from 17 to 27% for palm oil, and from 4 to 10% for palm kernels.
Where did palm oil come from?
Humans used oil palms as far back as 5,000 years. In the late 1800s, archaeologists discovered a substance that they concluded was originally palm oil in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3,000 BCE. Palm oil from Elaeis guineensis has long been recognized in West and Central African countries, used widely as a cooking oil.
How is palm oil made?
Palm oil is traditionally, and still industrially, produced by milling the fruits of oil palm. Besides milling, palm oil is produced by cold-pressing the fruit of the oil palm since the 1990s. This type of artisanal palm oil is usually not further refined, so they keep the natural red color.
Will Indonesia ban exports of cooking oil?
A vendor shows packs of cooking oil at his stall at a market in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, April 17, 2022. Indonesia will ban exports of cooking oil and its raw materials to reduce domestic shortages and hold down prices, President Joko Widodo announced Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)