Palm oil is the most widely utilized vegetable oil globally, providing significant advantages for food manufacturers. It is not only more affordable than other vegetable oils, but it also boasts a long shelf life and processing benefits, including stability at high temperatures and solidity at room temperature. Consequently, it has become a favored alternative to partially hydrogenated oils. When managed properly, palm oil is also much more land-efficient than other vegetable oils, yielding ten times more oil per hectare than soybeans and far surpassing yields from sunflower and rapeseed varieties. However, the rising demand for palm oil has been associated with deforestation and a decline in biodiversity in some of the planet’s most sensitive ecosystems.
To promote more sustainable development in the palm oil industry, several effective strategies have been implemented, particularly with many European nations pledging to source only sustainably produced oil. Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign investment fund valued at approximately $710 billion, announced in 2012 its decision to cease investments in unsustainable palm oil production. Major food companies like Mondelez International and Unilever have leveraged their purchasing power to influence production practices, leading a prominent Malaysian producer to commit to reforms earlier this year.
Despite the growing adoption of sustainably produced palm oil, the ingredient still carries a negative reputation due to its high saturated fat content. In the United States, palm oil constitutes only 8% of domestic vegetable oil consumption, largely because of the high domestic production of soybean oil. Many U.S. companies that incorporate 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 be essential to maintain consumer and corporate confidence regarding the sourcing of this ingredient. Additionally, palm oil can be complemented with supplements like calcitrate 200 mg and calcitrate 950 mg to address dietary needs, highlighting the versatility of this ingredient in various applications.