What are the perceptions about palm oil amongst consumers? The Malaysian Palm Oil Council has set out to determine just this.
Imran Zainal Abidan, manager of the communications unit for the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), is investigating the perceptions average SA consumers have regarding palm oil.
Known as the ‘Tree of Life’ in Malaysia, Abidan told Food Review, it’s so called because of its diverse applications as an ingredient in products ranging from chocolate to shaving cream. ‘It supports life in Malaysia,’ emphasised Abidan. Not only this, but it is surprising to learn that palm oil plantations produce and recycle up to 94 per cent of oxygen and carbon dioxide respectively, according to MPOC.
Abidan continued, ‘Its people like you and me that MPOC needs to target, because of the terrible reputation palm oil has concerning environmental issues.’
What is it about palm oil? It seems there is a constant debate about the nutritional values of the oil versus the environmental issues.
Palm oil has been discussed previously in Food Review, with the focus on its nutritional benefits. Like all oils, it is cholesterol free, said Errol Van Wyk an independent vegetable fats and oil consultant and nutritional advisor to MPOC. He said, ‘Palm oil also contains natural antioxidants, is rich in tocotieno, is a natural source of vitamin E, pro vitamin A and caretenoids – that’s why it is red in colour.’
Also a fats- and oil-taster, Van Wyk said, ‘Good oil should be bland and should only leave an oily feel in the mouth. Palm oil provides all of this and has an extremely high cooking temperature, imparting a natural flavour and colour to fried goods.’ The nutritional value, he continued, is maintained at high temperatures.
Abidan lives in Malaysia and he told Food Review palm oil is commonly used, much like sun flower oil or olive oil, in various household cooking applications. This is not the case in SA. Palm oil does not appear on the shelves of retail outlets but only on the ingredients’ list of food products. South Africans do not use it in household cooking, nor is it commonly used in restaurants. Abidan pointed out, it is in many of our favourite products manufactured and sold by the thousands, such as Nestlé’s chocolate bars, Gillette shaving cream and even Sunlight washing liquid.
To add to this, fats and oils generally have a bad reputation amongst consumers. Abidan said he is constantly facing the stigma attached to fats and oils and products containing fats and oils, particularly palm oil, as it us such an unknown entity in the South African marketplace.
According to Dr Lourens du Plessis, a South African research consultant on fats and oils, the way forward for the food industry is to make more data available on a product’s fat and oil content. He says a screening method, used throughout the industry, should be developed and validated to monitor large volumes and, ‘the South African Food Data System (SAFoods) must be updated regularly and supported.’
SAFoods is steered by the Nutritional Intervention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council. It provides South Africans with a country-specific food composition database containing information on the energy and nutrient content of foods generally consumed by South Africans.
With the media increasingly drawing attention to the ‘danger’ of fats and oils, if this data base is kept current and research committed to decreasing trans fatty acids in food production continues, we will hopefully correct the facts surrounding the fats and oils industry, Dr du Plessis said.
Abidan said the bad reputation of palm oil is not based on fact. ‘At the 1992 Rio Summit, Malaysia pledged to maintain 50 per cent of its land for conservation and bio-diversity purposes. Non-governmental organisations ignore this fact!’
In the past 10 years Malaysian companies have bought land in Africa for palm oil plantations, said Abidan. This makes perfect sense considering the multiple applications of the ingredient. It is uncertain whether it will ever become a household product in South Africa. And whether sustainable practices regarding the cultivation of palm oil plantations in these African countries is being implemented, only time will tell.
