What is Palm Oil?

Hailing from the oil palm tree, scientifically called Elaeis guineensis, palm oil is the liquid squeezed from the red, fleshy fruit or the seeds inside. There are two types of oil that come from this plant: crude palm oil and palm kernel oil. The former comes from the fruit and the latter gets pressed out of the seed, or kernel. Both are used for cooking and in foods, though the crude style is more prevalent in the kitchen and is an orange-red color, a direct result of the high beta-carotene content in the fruit. Palm kernel oil tends to be pressed and refined into more of a solid, which gets used for preserving packaged foods.

Palm oil has been used for thousands of years and traces of the ingredient were found in a tomb in Egypt dating back to around 3,000 BCE. But palm oil isn't just used in foods. During the British Industrial Revolution it was also a popular lubricant for machinery. Many soaps also contain palm oil; most famously, Palmolive, an American brand of liquid dishwashing soap.

There are two oil palm trees that produce palm oil, the African oil palm (from West Africa), and the American oil palm native to Latin America. But due to a growing popularity that's occurred over the last 50 years, now the tree is raised and harvested in more areas, including places in Asia and India.

How to Use Palm Oil

Most of the palm oil found at the market will be a more natural, unrefined version, which can be used in many ways and often easily replaces olive oil and other vegetable oils in recipes. Use it when making hummus to add a bit of sweet nuttiness to the dip. Toss cut vegetables and potatoes with palm oil, salt and pepper and roast. Pick palm oil when sweating seeds and spices for a stew, curry or stir fry, and let the ingredient lubricate whatever goes in the pot after the spices have bloomed. If making a salad, try using palm oil in the dressing; it will add a unique spin to the dish and add some healthy fat at the same time.

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oil palm fruit — Getty Images/ Eskay Lim / EyeEm

What Does Palm Oil Taste Like?

Palm oil is not an overpowering flavor, nor is the red, unrefined oil a blank slate. There's an earthiness to palm oil that's unlike its vegetable and olive counterparts. It can be likened to a root vegetable such as orange and yellow winter squashes and carrot. Palm oil also can impart a little nuttiness to dish, though this nuance remains mild.

Palm Oil Recipes

Palm oil can be a part of many dishes cooked at home, and often it's used in preserved and processed grocery items. While many recipes don't call for palm oil, it can be substituted for olive and/or vegetable oils in many applications.

Where to Buy Palm Oil

Despite palm oil making the ingredient list in many food products, getting pure palm oil isn't as easy to come by. Health food and natural grocery stores carry it, especially the non-altered red version. You can also find it at markets that carry African or Brazilian products. Like other cooking oils, palm oil is sold in an array of sizes, from small bottles to gallon jugs to full drums. It's not an expensive ingredient and can be bought refined, unrefined, in a natural red color or blanched to pale yellow, the color often associated with canola oil.

Storage

As long as it's in a sealed jar, palm oil can last for years. It's best to store in a cool area of the pantry or place in the refrigerator for a longer shelf life. If the space is warm the palm oil may liquify, but that doesn't hurt the ingredient. Cooling will make is solid again. Just make sure it's sealed so no moisture enters the jar, which can cause mold.

Nutrition and Benefits

As far as fats go, palm oil contains about the same amount of saturated fat as a pat of butter. It also has a good amount of monounsaturated fat, the type touted as heart-healthy. Palm oil's biggest claim to nutrition fame is a large amount of vitamins E and K. If eating the crude palm oil there's also a dose of beta carotene, which converts to vitamin A when consumed.

Varieties

The term palm oil includes many types of the ingredient, including palm oil, palm kernel oil and fractionated palm kernel oil. All come from the oil palm tree, but aren't exactly the same thing.

Palm kernel oil gets pressed from the seed or kernel of the fruit and tends to be more creamy in color. Regular red palm oil comes from the crimson fruit, which gets steamed to help release the oil. This type of palm oil is also called crude palm oil. Finally the fractionated palm kernel oil, a derivative of kernel oil that gets pressed to the point of being almost all solids. This form of the ingredient mainly gets used in processed and preserved foods such as energy bars, candy bars, fruit snacks and many other shelf-stable products.

Myths

Not all palm oil comes from large plantations. Much is sourced from small farms around Indonesia, Malaysia, West Africa and many Latin American countries. There's a lot of controversy over palm oil production and deforestation. While certainly large plantations have uprooted other native trees, it's by no means a leader when it comes to environmental and rainforest issues and there are many places that harvest palm oil responsibly.

Another myth surrounding palm oil is that it's unhealthy. True, it's found in plenty of unhealthy foods, but palm oil itself isn't bad to eat. It's comparable to butter and other oils, and in some cases proves healthier.