Crude palm oil is very rich in natural plant pigments called "carotenoids" giving the oil a distinct orange-red colour. In conventional refining of palm oil, all the carotenoids are removed and the refined oil is no longer orange-red but instead, golden-yellow. Thanks to novel technology introduced by the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry, healthful natural carotenoids (along with vitamin E) in the native oil can now be retained in the refined product called red palm oil.

Red palm oil (RPO) is the only commercially-available oil that contains substantial amounts of the natural plant pigments called "carotenoids" (about 550 µg/g), as well as vitamin E (600 µg/g) comprising both tocotrienols (65%) and alpha-tocopherol (35%).

Palm oil is obtained from the flesh ("mesocarp") of the oil palm fruit. Like olive oil, palm oil is a fruit oil. Palm oil should not be mistaken for palm kernel oil which is extracted from the kernel or seed of the palm fruit. Therefore, the oil palm fruit is unique. From the fruit two distinct types of oils are produced - palm oil and palm kernel oil. Both are edible oils but with very different chemical composition, physical properties and applications.

No. Many people mistaken palm oil for palm kernel oil. Palm kernel oil has very different chemical composition and physical characteristics compared to palm oil (see Figure 1). Both these oils come from the same fruit but they are uniquely different. Palm oil comes from the flesh or mesocarp of the fruit while palm kernel oil comes from the kernel or seed of the fruit. Palm oil and palm kernel oil have different impact on heart disease risk due to the different composition of fatty acids.

Palm oil naturally contains carotenes (pro-vitamin A) which gives it its red color. Palm oil carotenoids have comparative alpha-carotene and beta-carotene distribution as carrots. (The refined red palm oil that is available in some food stores in the US has 15 times the amounts of carotenes compared to carrots and 300 times more than tomatoes!). Approximately 1 tablespoon of red palm oil meets 100% of the adult reference dietary intake (RDI).

Once consumed, palm oil does not remain intact in the digestive tract for long, for it's soon attacked by the digestive enzyme pancreatic lipase, breaking down the fat molecules into smaller fragments called "fatty acids and mono-glycerides". These digestive products are then absorbed. Refined palm oil and its processed fractions, palm olein and palm stearin, are in fact 95-97% digestible, which falls within the digestibility range of 93-99% for most edible oils and fats. No.

No. Palm oil's natural semi-solid properties and the versatility of blending with its solid fraction, palm stearin, makes hydrogenation of palm oil unnecessary. Therefore, food products containing palm oil as its sole or main fat ingredient are essentially trans-free.

No. Many people mistaken palm oil for coconut oil and thereby think that palm oil is similar to palm kernel oil. It is palm kernel oil that is similar to coconut oil in terms of chemical composition, physical characteristics and uses (see Figure 1). Besides fatty acid composition, palm oil also differs from coconut oil with regard to their impact on heart disease risk.

These two fats have been used for centuries by indigenous cultures for culinary, cosmetic, and medicinal uses. The unique health benefits of both Coconut and Red Palm Oils retain their potency whether used as a cooking oil, or applied topically, or even as a healing salve. We have learned to enjoy these oils in traditional recipes gathered from all over the world.

Our cookie bakers tell us it is still necessary to use tropical oils for the production of compound coating. Many top bakers have tried to stop using it, but without it, their products do not meet production standards. There are currently eight varieties of Girl Scout Cookies produced by each baker licensed to produce Girl Scout Cookies. Each baker produces Girl Scout Cookie varieties without palm oil.

Palm oil's semi-solid properties make it a favourite ingredient among the food processors. From palm oil you can have unlimited oil fractions for use of any kind of food applications. The oil could to be incorporated into a wide variety of food products which include cooking oils, margarines, noodles, shortenings, vegetable ghee, bakery products, chocolates, hot beverages, coffee creamers, and ice cream. Due to its excellent stability, palm olein is the No.

You can type in the brand name or the name of a fast food restaurant and all of the items for that company will be listed. Although you can find items by typing as few as the first three letters of a word and an asterisk, you will get fewer matches if you type one or more words. However, if you type too much, you may not get any matches. Try typing the key word or the most restrictive word.

No. A re-examination of the data of some early published western studies which included palm oil, showed that when palm oil replaced the habitual fats of Western diets, blood cholesterol levels in the subjects did not go up but instead were reduced from 7% to 38%! Subsequent research conducted in the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia have firmly established that palm oil tends to be "neutral", that is does not raise nor lower blood cholesterol levels.

Fractionation is a physical process to make palm kernel oil more solid at room temperature. It involves heating and cooling the oil to remove the liquid portion (or "fraction"). This fractionation process creates a solid fat made up primarily of saturated fats that won't melt at room temperature. Hydrogenation is another process to convert a liquid oil into a solid fat.

No. Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil from Mt. Banahaw Health Products Corp. in the Philippines, made the traditional way, is made exclusively for Tropical Traditions and only sold under our brand name. So always look for the Tropical Traditions logo. If it is not on the label, it is not our Virgin Coconut Oil.

When the ambient temperature drops below the "cloud point" of palm olein (approximately 20°C) as happens during a cold night or weather, palm olein molecules crystalise out of solution and the oil appears cloudy. At lower temperatures, the cloudy oil then becomes solid. This is only a physical transformation and the oil is perfectly safe for consumption. The oil soon clears up when the ambient temperature rises above the "cloud point". This is similar to the water-ice phenomenon.

Palm oil is used in such products as bread and rolls, pancakes, waffles, crackers, ready to eat cereals, chips, popcorn, biscuits, tarts, cakes, pies, canned puddings, chocolates, coffee whitener, nondairy toppings, infant formulas, cocoa mixes, fried potatoes and onions, soups, gravies and frozen and dry mix entrees. Palm oil is also especially useful in the manufacture of margarines, since it imparts natural colouring and a high glyceride content without hydrogenation.

Palm oil contains equal amounts of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The saturated fatty acid portion of palm oil is made up of 44% palmitic acid and 5% stearic acid. The mono-unsaturated portion of palm oil is composed of oleic acid and accounts for 40% of its composition. 10% of palm oil is made up of the poly-unsaturated fatty acid, linoleic acid which is also an essential fatty acid.

The demand for sustainable palm oil is increasing as more and more consumers and companies become aware of sustainability issues related to palm oil production. For instance, more than 50 organizations have signed up as members of RSPO and are committed to actively promote sustainable palm oil.

Our palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the palm and is unhydrogenated. There are no hydrogenated or transesterified fats in any of our products.

No. Palm oil comes from the fleshy portion of the fruit whereas palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel or seed.

Palm oil is found in the fleshy portion of the fruit (mesocarp), whereas palm kernel oil is found in the kernel or the seed of the fruit. These two oils have very different fatty acid compositions. Palm oil is 50% saturated fat and 50% unsaturated fat. More specifically palm oil contains approximately 44% palmitic acid, 5% stearic acid, 39% oleic acid (monounsaturates), and 10% linoleic acid (polyunsaturates). Myristic acid and lauric acid are negligible.

If the oil is packed in a clear bottle you will be able to see its colour and many people think this will help them determine the style of olive oil in the bottle. Oils with a deep green colour, so tradition goes, will be very green in character with an aggressive, peppery style. Golden oils will be sweet and delicate at best, flabby and boring at worst. This is not true! This kind of generalisation may give the right answer some of the time but it can also be wildly inaccurate.