Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB)
The palm oil industry has been a significant driver to the Malaysian economic development and has established itself in the international oils and fats business. Export earnings from oil palm products reached RM 59.77 billion in 2010, an increase of 20.4% from RM 49.66 billion recorded in the previous year.
Palm oil has been used in food preparation for over 50 centuries in many parts of the world. Nowadays, it is accepted by consumers worldwide in many forms, such as cooking oil, margarine and shortening, and also is used extensively as an ingredient in fat blends and a vast array of food products. Food manufacturers […]
Agriculture is an integral part of the African economy. For example, in South Africa, the most developed African country, besides the presence of huge mining and industrial sectors in the country, the agricultural sector plays an important role in the economy. The agricultural sector contributes up to 8% of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of […]
In 1922, embryologist H M Evans discovered tocopherols (TP) which are needed for human reproduction (Evans and Bishop, 1922, Evans et al., 1974). More than 40 years later, the isolation of tocotrienol (T3) from latex was first reported by R A Morton (Danphy et al., 1965). To date, vitamin E consists of T3 and TP. […]
Poverty. Drought. Backwardness. Despotic. Civil wars. Those are some of the words that are associated with the African continent. Most of the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) are located in Africa. The Gross National Income (GNI) of many of the African countries is among the lowest in the world. The per capita GNI of Burundi […]
The oils and fats sector has always exhibited a very common feature of volatility. This is true of the palm products for which the upswing and downswing of their prices imply that there are different factors affecting them at different times of the year. In 2009, speculations on the low production of palm oil in […]
In the early years of commercial production, the crude palm oil was processed into refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm oil (PO). The light colour of the oil met the consumers’ expectation based on the traditional appearance of the classic cooking oils like soya, sunflower and groundnut oils. The refining process produced palm fatty acid […]
In the past six decades, a number of epidemiological studies have shown a clear association between certain dietary fatty acids and the risk of cardiovascular disease. A 2% increase in energy intake from partially hydrogenated fats or trans fatty acids is associated with a 23% increase in the incidence of cardiovascular heart disease. Replacement of […]
The increasing global awareness of the rapid depletion of the non-renewable fuel and energy resources as well as the environmental concern of the world have resulted in the search for sustainable alternative fuels. One of the most promising alternative fuels is the vegetable oils and their ester derivatives or commonly known as biodiesel. Oil palm, […]
The oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is the source of palm oil – the ‘tropical golden oil’. Malaysia is the world’s largest exporter of this golden oil. Palm oil is a versatile oil with a wide range of uses in food and nonfood areas. Triglycerides constitute the major component of crude palm oil, with smaller proportions […]