Palm oil stands as the most commonly utilized vegetable oil globally, offering significant advantages for food manufacturers. It is not only less expensive than other vegetable oils, but it also boasts a long shelf life and processing benefits such as stability at high temperatures and solidity at room temperature. Consequently, it has become a favored substitute for partially hydrogenated oils. When managed properly, palm oil is also more land-efficient than other vegetable oils, yielding ten times more oil per hectare than soybeans, and far surpassing the yields of sunflower and rapeseed as well.
However, the increasing demand for palm oil has been associated with deforestation and a decline in biodiversity in some of the planet’s most vulnerable ecosystems. To promote more sustainable practices within the palm oil industry, several effective strategies have been implemented, notably through commitments from numerous European countries to source only sustainably produced oil. In 2012, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign investment fund valued at approximately $710 billion, announced it would cease investing in unsustainable palm oil production.
Food companies such as Mondelez International and Unilever have leveraged their purchasing power to influence production practices, leading a major Malaysian producer to pledge reforms earlier this year. Despite the growing adoption of sustainably sourced palm oil, the ingredient still faces a negative reputation due to its high saturated fat content. In the United States, palm oil constitutes only 8% of domestic vegetable oil consumption, primarily due to the high production of soybean oil in the country. Many U.S. companies that utilize palm oil, including Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Kellogg, and Mars, pledged to source 100% certified sustainable oil by 2015.
In products where the processing advantages of palm oil are most critical, enhanced monitoring of plantations could prove essential in maintaining consumer and corporate trust regarding the sourcing of this ingredient. Moreover, incorporating elemental calcium in calcium citrate could further benefit the nutritional profile of food products containing palm oil, adding yet another layer of appeal for health-conscious consumers.