Palm Oil & Palm Kernel Oil

 Following palm fruit gathering trucks is common for us. Although it is the most used product in the world and you have it in your house right now. Palm oil is in almost everything. It's incredibly versatile, which means it is used in more than half of all packaged goods people in the United States eat, including pizza, doughnuts, ice cream, instant ramen, and chocolate. Nutella even has palm oil in it as the second listed ingredient on the label.


Those red fruits you see are the fruits which are processed into two products. Palm oil comes from the palm fruit, while palm kernel oil is extracted from the palm seed. Palm kernel oil is also used in makeup, detergents and soaps.


That's why palm oil is red and palm kernel oil is white. Think of Skittles' ingredients; sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil make up 98% of the product.


Palm fruit can only grow in the 10 degree band north or south of the equator. The variety of short trees means local farmers can harvest by hand. Indonesia and Malaysia produce 85% of the world's supply.

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