You might have heard of different types of cooking oil. Olive oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil are among the most common types of cooking oil but have you heard of palm oil? You might have seen it as an ingredient in some products but have you ever used it? It is not produced in India. Palm oil is mostly produced in Malaysia. And It is imported in India. Palm oil is derived from the flesh of the fruit oil palm. The trees of this fruit are mostly found in Malaysia. Thus, it is highly produced in Malaysia. Palm oil is nature’s gift to Malaysia and Malaysia is sharing this gift with the whole world.
Uses of Palm oil
Palm oil is used in various products (mainly FMCG). A lot of FMCG brands or companies use it as a primary cooking oil. Palm oil is mostly used in frying the products as it has good resistance level. Products fried in palm oil shows good resistance against heat and oxidants. Thus products like potato chips, French fries, doughnut, noodles and nuts are fried in palm oil. In fact, palm oil has been used as a 100 percent replacement to soybean oil and canola. Thus, you find palm oil as an ingredient on pack of FMCG products these days.
Health and Nutritional Benefits
Palm oil is very important for health. It is a rich source of vitamin E. In fact, no other vegetable oil has as much vitamin E as palm oil. Apart from vitamin E, it possesses fatty acids and important fat soluble micronutrients like carotenoids (including pro-vitamin A). Moreover, palm oil works as an energy booster, along with vitamin E, palm oil is rich in calories as well. It helps in achieving the daily requirement of calories intake, as one gram of palm oil supplies nine kcal of energy. In short, you can say palm oil ishealthy as well as nutritious cooking oil.
Taste and food security with palm oil
Palm oil possesses all the nutrients mentioned above, so you can feel secure from nutrients point of view. As far as taste of palm oil is concerned, palm oil doesn’t have its own flavour so it retains the original flavour of the dish prepared. As it retains the original flavour that means it enhances the taste of dish. Moreover, palm oil is purely vegan and an alternative to vanaspati. Apart from that, while producing palm oil fruit lesser pesticide and fertilisers are used compared to other oil seeds. Considering all the factors, one can conclude that palm oil is perfect ingredient for healthy and active lifestyle.
Efficiency and being the target
Production of palm oil needs very less land compared to other oil seeds. Thus, vegetables, fruits and other things can be produced along with palm seeds. The oil which is very nutritious and along with that, it is land efficient as well then it is bound to get success. As I mentioned earlier palm oil is a hit among FMCG companies. And as it is a hit, it is bound to get under radar and is bound to face negative publicity. So you may find some reports stating palm oil is harmful for health. After stating the nutritional benefits above, I don’t think there is any harmful element in palm oil.
In one way or the other we are consuming the products fried in palm oil. And after considering all the factors, I feel this cooking oil is worth trying.
