Media365
You might not realise it, but there is one ingredient that appears in almost everything you use every day, from instant noodles to ice cream, lipstick and laundry detergent. Its name? Palm oil.
More specifically, Malaysian palm oil. The country is one of the world’s top producers of this widely consumed vegetable oil, supplying various industries across the globe.
“It is the most versatile and safest vegetable oil, and therefore one of the most widely consumed oils on the market,” says Professor Tan Chin Ping, a food scientist who has spent more than two decades studying the quality, safety and processing of palm oil in Malaysia.
Palm oil consumption has soared over the past four decades. In 1980, global demand was about 5 million tonnes annually. By 2020, that figure had grown by more than 15 times to over 79 million tonnes per year. Tan notes that palm oil accounts for about 40 per cent of the world’s vegetable oil consumption, with Malaysia exporting it to nearly 160 countries.
Palm oil is found in a vast array of products ranging from margarine, dairy cream and baked goods to cosmetics, detergents and biofuel.
A safer, more stable oil
One reason palm oil has become so ubiquitous is its stability under heat. Tan’s research focuses on how the oil performs in high-temperature cooking, as is used for instant noodles, potato chips and baked goods.
“At such high temperatures, many vegetable oils will have created harmful by-products or are not stable,” he explains. “You eventually lose some of the essential nutrients. But palm oil is relatively very stable, and that gives it the opportunity to be widely applied in all kinds of high-heat treatment, such as frying or baking.”
