Palm oil, made from the fruit of the oil palm tree, is one of the most widely used vegetable oils in the world. Taken together, palm oil and soybean oil account for about half of all vegetable oils produced throughout the world. Palm oil is used in making a variety of products, including ice cream, cooking oil, margarine, shortening, and soap.
The fruit of the oil palm tree is reddish-orange and about the size of a date. The tree produces 10 to 15 fruit clusters, each with about 200 fruits. The clusters are cut from the trees and taken by truck to a mill, where they are sterilized and separated into individual fruits. A machine called a digester converts the fruit into a mash, which is crushed to obtain crude palm oil. The crude oil is then dehydrated, cleaned, and refined.
During the 1700’s, the English used palm oil as a medicine and hand cream. In the early 1900’s, oil palm trees were planted in parts of Africa. Many rubber plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia were replanted with oil palms during the 1960’s. Today, Malaysia and Indonesia are the world’s leading palm oil producers.
