Generality
Palm oil is a very well known and widespread seasoning fat.
Due to the latest discoveries in the health field, today the use of this product is controversial to say the least. This is why companies have taken action to look for a "theoretically" healthier alternative: non-hydrogenated palm oil.
What is palm oil?
Palm oil or dendê oil is a dressing fat obtained from the pressing of the fruits produced by oil palms ( Elaeis guineensis, Elaeis oleifera and Attalea maripa ). The drupes are therefore very rich in lipids. What many people do not know is that, as with olives, even the fruits of oil palms contain a different profile of fatty acids between the pulp (pericarp) and the seed (endosperm, embryo and integument). Not by chance, from the drupes of the oil palms are obtained, in the raw state, two different oils: the palm oil proper (from the pulp) and the palm kernel oil (from the seeds).
From a qualitative point of view, palm oil is clearly superior to palm kernel oil, thanks to the greater concentration of unsaturated fatty acids, less "harmful" (ac. Palmitic acid), carotenoids (provitamin A with antioxidant effect). ) and tocopherols (vitamin E with an antioxidant effect). On the other hand, palm kernel oil is less rich in polyunsaturates, contains more "harmful" saturates and less antioxidants.
Through numerous processes, such as fractionation, purification and hydrogenation, many types of different oils can be obtained from palm oil and palm kernel oil.
Types
Types of palm oil
Palm oil can also be classified according to the degree of refining and the type of processing to which it is subjected. The needs of industrial production have gradually oriented the selection towards fractionated oils (division of the liquid parts from the more solid ones), purified (without color and odor) and possibly hydrogenated. This makes it possible to obtain neutral oils, suitable both as an ingredient in the dough and for frying (with the necessary differences between the products), very resistant to oxidation, with a high smoke point and inexpensive. Alas, due to their bad metabolic impact, sometimes these can be unsuitable for frequent consumption and in significant quantities.
- Red palm oil, the raw one, as well as stearic acid (saturated) is rich in oleic acid and antioxidant vitamins that are beneficial to health. All the others are also refined, therefore deprived of the antioxidant component
- The palm kernel oil, for the reasons we have seen, is qualitatively inferior
- Fractionated palm oil (always purified, never raw) is divided into various by-products, some excellent and others not recommended:
- The oleins (of palm and palm kernel), liquid fractions, rich in unsaturated fatty acids (especially oleic), tend to be good for metabolism (especially palm)
- The superolein (of palm), fractionated twice (or bifractionated) rich in unsaturated fatty acids, tends to be good for metabolism (but lower than palm olein)
- Stearins (palm and palm kernel), solid fractions, rich in saturated acids (especially palmitic and stearic), tend to be bad for metabolism.
Hydrogenation
Hydrogenated and non-hydrated palm oil: what changes?
As we have already said, the demand of the food industry has oriented the production of oils on various levels of processing. A part of these is carried out before placing them on the market, while others can be applied directly by food companies based on need.
If palm oil must be particularly resistant to heat and maintain its consistency even at room temperature, the company will buy or produce a colorless, tasteless oil with a high melting point; for example a stearin. However, there is another solution, namely the application of hydrogenation to the liquid components.
Hydrogenation is a chemical-physical modification of unsaturated fatty acids (in the case of palm oil, the oleic monounsaturated) to which, by adding a hydrogen, the properties of saturated fats are attributed (solid ones such as palmitic acid). Many will wonder what sense an oil can have when working independently when there is the possibility of buying the solid fraction directly. Simple; instead of buying a poorly processed and therefore very expensive intermediate, I choose a raw material that is almost completely raw to be processed in its entirety or, worse still, a liquid residue of very poor quality and therefore very cheap.
However, consumers still doubt whether hydrogenated oils can be harmful to health. In fact, especially through rough and poorly controlled processes (ie the most dated), a rather unpleasant side effect occurs, ie the production of fatty acids in a trans conformation. These are lipids with the worst metabolic impact of all, which predispose to hypercholesterolemia and indirectly to overweight.
This is why today, despite the fact that hydrogenation technologies have improved and the production of trans fatty acids is much lower, industries are returning to non-hydrogenated oils. However, it must be admitted that even the word "non-hydrogenated" can mislead the quality assessment of the product. If we consider that, apart from the content of trans fatty acids, the hydrogenates and the saturated (palmitic) have the same metabolic effect, we can deduce that:
"if the industry, instead of the hydrogenates, uses fractionated like stearin, the result does not change!".
Conclusions
Non-hydrogenated palm oil: does it make a difference?
Those made so far are approximate estimates. For greater accuracy it would be necessary to study the various types of palm oil in the countless refining variants one by one. On the other hand, the rule of never trusting advertisements is always valid. Crude palm oil, after all, would be a good compromise; we could compare it (spannometrically) to a mixture of olive oil and butter. Even the olein of palm oil, although deprived of all its carotenoids, represents a good solution; the olein of palm kernel and superolein are, on the other hand, less good in order.
It is therefore not only important the presence or absence of hydrogenation, but also the type of oil we are talking about. Stearin is not hydrogenated but does not have a good impact on metabolism. A hydrogenated palm kernel olein, which initially is predominantly unsaturated and therefore tend to be better than the previous one, may become of inferior quality after hydrogenation.
