Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

B. Extraction of Oil-Bearing Fruits
Oil palms and olives are two examples of commercially important fruits providing
important edible oils. Palm fruit can provide two distinctly different fats, one from
the fleshy mesocarp and the other from the seed kernels. While olives and palms are
processed slightly differently, space allows discussion of the palm oil production
system only (Fig. 13).
Palm trees are perennials grown on plantations, particularly in Malaysia. It
takes 3 years for the plantings to mature sufficiently to bear fruit, and they produce
for about 25 years. Palm fruits are hand-harvested and immediately transported to
the mill, where they are quickly sterilized. The fruits are processed within hours after
harvesting because the oil immediately begins to degrade after harvesting. The fruits
are sterilized by heating under steam pressure (145�C) for 1 hour to inactivate the
Figure 13 Steps in processing palm fruits.
Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.