But the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations is blamed for massive deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, and destroying the habitat of endangered native wildlife there, such as the orangutan, and increasing their risk of extinction. Sure. palm kernel oil. If all the above technological efforts succeed, where will Malaysia’s palm oil biodiesel be in the equation of alternative and renewable sources of energy that are carbon neutral? Orangutans are losing their homes in Borneo and Sumatra thanks to Indonesian palm oil production and much of Malaysia’s rainforest has been converted to palm plantation over the past decade or two. To do that, we have to take a step back and see what ultimate drives demand for palm oil. However, the babassu does have a lighter feeling on the skin and it absorbs quickly. If you used butter and milk, the cow those came from was probably fattened on it too. African shea nuts, for example, are collected and sold in small volumes by local communities, rather than grown in plantation, making the supply small and vulnerable to disruption. Even if it’s around the corner, it’s not on the shelf yet. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. read This was known by food companies before and the transition to palm oil had mostly taken place by then.”. biofuels derived from palm oil and other food-based crops would have to be phased out, suggests it could be a viable alternative to palm oil, created a strain of algae that produced double the amount of oil, experimental algal farm at its Ohio plant, high rates of oil production into leafy plants such as tobacco and sorghum. Food giant General Mills – one of the biggest purchasers of palm oil in the US – has encountered similar trouble. Oil palms are also easy to grow in the tropics and highly profitable for farmers, even in difficult soils, which has seen the area turned over to growing this crop rapidly increase in recent years. According to not-for-profit certifier Bonsucro, only 4% of the sugar in the world is grown under sustainable conditions. It might have been in the bread you toasted for breakfast, or the margarine you smeared on it, or in the creamer you stirred into your coffee. “It should be possible to produce palm oil in a non-palm oil plant. It’s not doing your heart any good — or the planet. Talk with Shara Ticku, the co-founder All that’s required is the will to make that change happen – and for that will to become as ubiquitous as palm oil itself. This move toward palm-free products creates an opportunity for vegetable oil producers in developing countries. But in 2019, the EU announced that biofuels derived from palm oil and other food-based crops would have to be phased out because of the environmental damage associated with their production. And, best of all, the new product can actually lower our bad cholesterol (LDL) and raise our good cholesterol (HDL) — sort of a reverse trans fat. But getting these products to the point where they can compete economically and at scale with palm oil is a major hurdle. palmate. Those two nations alone boast around 13 million hectares of oil palm plantation, almost half the world’s total. And the RPSO has been criticised as opaque and ineffectual, with little power to compel change among growers. One option is algae. Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com, The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star “We’re not changing the molecular composition of the oil in terms of its fundamental nature, we’re just redistributing the molecules and making ‘partial glycerols,’ similar to the way that we digest fats in our body. Alternatives such as soy bean and rapeseed require more land. Anything with the word “palm” in it (even if it’s not written as “Palm Oil”) That’s been called a “double whammy” when it comes to heart health. “People from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board talk about sustainable palm oil, but I struggle to see how they’re selling anything as sustainable,” says Kyle Reynolds, a crop scientist who until recently worked at Australia's CSIRO research centre. The problem remains economics and commercial algal oil production for the commodity market is still far on the horizon,” he says. “I wish I had better news for you.”. "The real problem is cost, because natural palm oil is extremely cheap, and that's what a synthetic alternative is competing against." Clearing of the rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia is destroying the last remaining habitats of endangered species like Orangu-tans (Credit: Getty Images), “Oil palm can’t grow too far south or too far north, it’s very much a tropical crop,” says Reynolds. But plenty of it makes it into our food, since it’s one of those hidden ingredients that’s managed to quietly find its way into dozens of processed foods, from chocolate bars to instant ramen. Even the vehicle you travelled in today – bus, train, or car – ran on fuel containing palm oil. And it’s cheap because oil palm is something of a wonder crop – it grows relatively quickly, is easy to harvest, and is spectacularly productive. Palm oil report: Alternatives would be environmentally even worse. Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. Despite its ubiquitous presence in larders and bathrooms, more than half of the palm oil imported to the European Union in 2017 was used for something else – fuel. *For more information about coconut oil and it’s properties in skincare, refer to our recent article from Stephensons. Two of them really stand out to me: 1. It has since gone further and developed Movis, a custom-made soap base that contains sunflower oil, cocoa butter, extra virgin coconut oil, and wheatgerm. So why don’t we just switch to peanut or sesame oil? But it is possible to grow oil palm in a way that limits its impact on the environment. Thus, ironically, a ban on palm oil would lead to a catastrophic increase in deforestation, as anything we replace it with will need much more land to grow on. Palm-Free Alternatives . What if we could reduce the pressure on tropical rainforests by creating a plant that was just as productive as oil palm, but could grow anywhere? To order copies of A hectare of oil palm can reliably produce four tonnes of vegetable oil every year, compared to 0.67 tonnes for rapeseed, 0.48 tonnes for sunflowers, and just 0.38 tonnes for soy beans. If Malaysia want to think long term, it should stop thinking of relying on palm oil exports to keep its economy going. And by releasing their discovery into the world with no strings attached, Nicholson and Marangoni have made it possible for fat manufacturers to make the switch, quickly. Scientists in Canada create a low-cost alternative to palm oil that uses a simple enzyme to turn liquid vegetable oils into solids. It adds the same firming and moisturizing properties as coconut and palm. palmitic acid Oil palm plantations linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss. There is still some way to go: a trial of this high leaf oil in the US failed, possibly due to the local climate (the transgenic plant can’t legally be grown in Australia). It’s hard to fathom the number of species at risk. I highly recommend using it … That’s what Reynolds and his colleagues have been working on. Normally, tobacco leaves contain less than 1% vegetable oil, but Reynolds’ plants boast up to 35%, meaning they yield even more vegetable oil than soy bean. On an industrial scale, bio-fertilisers from palm oil empty fruit bunches should be promoted as an alternative to the widespread use of chemical fertilisers in Malaysia. But when it comes to the efficiency and beneficial qualities of the Oil… Trans fat consumption raises low-density lipoproteins (LDL, a.k.a. But none of these ingredients are as cheap or readily available as palm oil. Palm oil empty fruit bunches at Langkon, Sabah. Palm oil keeps chocolate bars from melting, works as a stabilizer and emulsifier in ice cream, and gives supermarket bread a longer shelf life, to name a few of its many applications. It’s still the cheapest oil around and, therefore, important to people experiencing food insecurity around the globe. And since producing an enzymatic reaction in oil isn’t capital-intensive and doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment, tiger nut shortening could be on the market before you know it. Marangoni is a fan of rice bran and tiger nut oils, the latter of which, he advises, makes a great shortening. But demand for sustainable palm oil, and the willingness to pay a price premium for it, is limited. “Ever since the demise of hydrogenated fats and partially hydrogenated fats, people immediately switched to palm oil as the solution,” said Alejandro Marangoni, professor and Canada Research Chair in Food, Health and Aging at the University of Guelph. The oil can also be burned for fuel, as can the palm kernels left over after processing. Alternative vegetable oils include soybean, rapeseed, and coconut as well as less common jatropha and jojoba. Given the crisis, Nicholson and Marangoni decided to play the “altruism card” and give the technology away for free, instead of patenting and licensing it. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. This might not be as strange as it seems: the majority of oil fields around the world are the fossilised remains of algae. Nicholson and Marangoni published the results of their research, “Enzymatic glycerolysis converts vegetable oils into structural fats with the potential to replace palm oil in food products” in the October issue of the journal Nature Food. Right now, just 4% of all of the world’s cane sugar is certified as sustainable under Bonsucro. Here are 10 easy vegetable oil alternatives, including olive oil, butter, applesauce, and more. Most companies in the West purchase palm oil that is certified by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RPSO). • Why the world is running out of sand• How do you bring a forest back to life?• The wall holding back a desert. rights reserved. This makes it difficult for people wishing to avoid palm oil (for dietary, allergy or ethical reasons) to know whether the product they wish to buy contains palm oil or a palm oil derivative. We have so few of these rainforests left and they’re home to so much biodiversity.”. Supermarket chain Iceland won praise in 2018 when it announced it would phase out palm oil from all its own-brand products (even releasing a heartrending Christmas advert featuring a homeless orangutan that was banned for being overtly political). ), The unique chemistry of palm oil give it a high melting point and make it high in saturated fats, meaning it is hugely versatile (Credit: Getty Images). Even the electricity that powers the device you’re reading this on may have been generated in part from burning oil palm kernels. Oil from certain species of algae can be turned into a “biocrude” that can then be distilled into a range of fuels that could replace diesel, jet fuel and even heavy shipping oil. Last year, carmaker Honda installed an experimental algal farm at its Ohio plant that captures carbon dioxide from the engine test centres. “Mandatory labelling of trans fat content in foods became law in Canada and the United States in 2006, and you had to declare the amount of trans fatty acids on your food labels. Harvested from the seeds of the West African oil palm, it’s pale in colour and odourless, making it a convenient food additive. permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com. It was probably in the shampoo you used this morning, or the soap you scrubbed yourself with, the toothpaste you brushed with, the vitamin pills you swallowed or the make-up you applied. He echoes Nelson’s concerns. According to Global Forest Watch, Indonesia lost 25.6 million hectares of tree cover between 2001 and 2018, an area almost as large as New Zealand. But how does it compete price-wise?”. Alternatives to palm oil. Scientists are making an alternative to palm oil which they hope could help endangered species like the orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino. The use of palm oil in Beauty Care has long been criticized for the negative environmental and ecological impacts surrounding the industry—specifically deforestation, biodiversity destruction, animal cruelty and socio-economic violations. Saturated fat is different, in that it raises both types of cholesterol, which is still not good — it’s just not as bad. And the oil produced by the tobacco is “quite a long way” from palm oil, as the fatty acids that make them up are longer and more unsaturated. In a report by the International Labor Rights Forum, they found several human rights violation after visiting 3 palm tree plantations in Indonesia (in South East Asia, where most palm oil comes from). “It’s a huge industry, the current value for oil palm is US$67bn,” says Reynolds. The company offers palm oil production and interrelated consumption parties, such as producers, refiners, traders, and consumers, an opportunity to invest in a sustainable bio-based palm oil alternative. Since trans fats (hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats) are considered unsafe for human health, the move to palm oil was definitely an upgrade. Palm oil’s ubiquitous presence in our lives is, in part, down to its unique chemistry. Oil palms are hugely productive and cheap to grow, which has been largely responsible for their rapid proliferation (Credit: Getty Images). Fortunately, Marangoni and his colleague, Reed Nicholson, graduate researcher in food science, also at the University of Guelph, started working on the problem a couple of years ago and discovered an easy fix: just add enzymes. But maybe we can curb this; I mean, at the rate that we’re going, we’re going to be left with nothing.”. The alga produces an oil very similar to palm oil, coating its spores to help them survive the arid conditions. It is a wonder product used in everything from confectionery to construction. Oil palm only grows within 20 degrees of the equator – an area which also happens to be where rainforests grow and is home to 80% of all species in the world. Well, that might be a bit of an oversimplification of the researchers’ “enzymatic glycerolysis” process, which uses a natural enzyme, glycerin, and mild heating to transform liquid oils into solid fats without altering the nutritional properties of the oils. Palm oil, like all fats, is composed of fatty acids, esterified with glycerol.Palm oil has an especially high concentration of saturated fat, specifically the 16-carbon saturated fatty acid, palmitic acid, to which it gives its name.Monounsaturated oleic acid is also a major constituent of palm oil. Looking at different oils on the same chart, you could use any of the following without changing the recipe: Sweet Almond Oil Cottonseed Oil (which is a primary ingredient in shortening) Grapeseed Oil Lard Tallow Venison Fat Olive Oil Rice Bran Oil … If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “The Essential List”. A similar oil palm known as Elaeis oleifera is found in South America, but it’s rarely grown commercially. By partially hydrogenating and blending these “exotic oils”, a blend with similar properties to palm oil can be created. Palm kernel oil is actually chemically more similar to coconut oil than palm oil, which is why we use both palm and coconut oils in our soaps, as both give different properties. Only this is free from palm oil, not the variant in a plastic Cup. The plants can be crushed and the oil harvested from their leaves. But the scientific potential is there to mediate our impact on the world by developing more sustainable ways to meet our food, fuel and cosmetic needs. Even though we know saturated fat is bad for us, that hasn’t seemed to slow down our consumption of it. When buying, make sure to grab the chocolate cream in the glass. Palm oil production is a valuable source of income in some developing countries and the issue of balancing human need while safeguarding animals and the environment is complicated. Video of the Week. Palm oil’s unique chemistry can also survive the high temperatures involved in cooking, and it’s very resistant to spoilage, bestowing a long shelf life upon products it is in. Olive Oil:A no-brainer, olive oil goes great on toast, pasta, you name it. (Find out more about saturated fats. It’s nearly impossible to avoid, and just as difficult to replace. All But replacing a miracle product isn’t easy. Know the Dark Truth of Palm Oil and Get Its Alternatives. Ecover’s experience highlights just some of the difficulties of finding a viable palm oil alternative. As global demand for meat, poultry and dairy products increases, the demand for palm oil will likewise grow. Most other vegetable oils need to be partially hydrogenated – where hydrogen atoms are chemically added to the fat molecules – to achieve the same consistency, a process which results in unhealthy trans-fats. The most controlled and efficient way to grow them is in large closed vats, but in this arrangement algae and yeast need to be fed sugar to grow, and lots of it. “We’re not going to necessarily eliminate the palm oil industry,” he said, “But the palm industry, along with the beef industry, is in expansion mode and on the verge of destroying what’s left of tropical rainforests. Digesting partial glycerols have been shown to lower our total cholesterol. Using Metschnikowia pulcherrima, a yeast historically used in the South African wine industry, scientists believe they can develop a truly versatile and planet-friendly alternative to palm oil! But economics aside, there’s another problem with relying on microbes like algae or yeast to replace palm oil. palm oil. Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. These aren’t the only recipes that could be tweaked to dispense with the palm oil. Among other approaches, startup biotech business C16 Bioscience is developing a method of brewing a synthetic alternative to palm oil using microbes, though the viability at scale of this process is … As well as its unique chemistry, palm oil is cheap. Republication or distribution of this content is Speed read. Palm plantations are also on the rise in Central America, South America (Colombia and Ecuador) as well as west and central Africa. Can we do it? The "melt in the mouth" texture possible with palm oil make it perfect for use in peanut butter and other spreads (Credit: Getty Images). To order “One way this alga does that is by producing this oil.”, Oil can be extracted from algae but growing it on a scale that could compete with palm oil is proving difficult (Credit: Getty Images). The Nutella Alternative is an East German product, which has now been brought as a palm oil-free version on the market. As if that weren’t enough good news for one story, this could also have massive environmental implications — palm oil isn’t just bad for heart health, it’s also terrible for rainforests around the world and the species that call them home. Coconut oil and babassu oil are often used as alternatives to palm kernel oil in the cosmetics industry. Palm oil is the world’s most popular vegetable oil. So what can we do while we wait? People are animals. Marangoni doesn’t think that’s in the cards, unfortunately. His research into the genetics of Chloroidium, a microscopic alga common in Abu Dhabi suggests it could be a viable alternative to palm oil. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife, and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. They’ve already fielded calls from people looking for advice about which oils work best; some do better than others. Take palm oil, for instance. As a vegan, it’s normal not to want other people to suffer, even if cows and pigs are the typical animals that come to mind when thinking about veganism. The shells can be crushed and used to make concrete, and the ash left after burning the palm fibres and kernels can be used as a replacement for cement. They include Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines. David Nelson is one plant geneticist who has been investigating the promise of algae. The move has left the EU searching for an alternative. Many Asian countries produce coconuts. area turned over to growing this crop rapidly increase, massive deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. 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